Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 2: Early Orthotain patent by Dr. Bergersen. Fig. 3: Further patenting the positioner by Dr. Bergersen in 1997 at the same time as Invisalign was being invented. Fig. 4 Fig. 7 an adult orthodontics patient.(Fig. 6) During his treatment with a retainer intended to complete his treatment, he conceived the idea that a series of such devices could affect a large final placement in a series of small movements, and that this movement could be calculated by a computer. He part-nered with Kelsey Wirth to seek developers. Invisalign was approved by the Food and Drug Administra-tion in 1998, $140 million in venture capital was raised from 1997 to 2000, and another $130 million in an initial public offering in 2001. As of 2014, according to Align Technology, nearly 3 million patients had been treated with Invisalign. Invisalign initially was only marketed and available to orthodontists who were resistant initial adopters of this tech-nology. By 2001 however, 75 percent of the 8,500 orthodon-tists in North America had become trained on the Invisalign system. Align Technology made Invisalign available to general dentists in 2001 following a class-action lawsuit that alleged that selling only to orthodontists resulted in unfair competi-tion. The Invisalign system grew from 80,000 patients in 2002 to 175,000 in 2004. Fig. 8 & 8) This resulted in several legal disputes involving allegations of patent infringement, false advertising, defamation and trade-mark infringement. The case was settled in 2006 after Chisti proved many of Align’s patents were invalid. OrthoClear was paid $20 million and agreed to end its operations. As an early adopter of Orthoclear, I did like their innovation of the window used around engagers which was very effective in intrusion and extrusion. To date, no other clear aligner system has adopted this innovation. This is likely due to the labor inten-sive need to individually trim out each location. ClearCorrect ClearCorrect, LLC, was established in 2006. (Fig. 9) It has been reported in 2017 that this clear align system had been used to treat about 80,000 patients giving it roughly about 20% of the market share within the United States. ClearCorrect was founded by dentist Willis Pumphrey, Jr. In 2001, Pumphrey started using Invisalign, then decided to switch to OrthoClear operations because of the way Ortho-www.orthodontics.com Orthoclear Zia Chishti was removed from Align Technology in 2002. Subsequently, he developed Orthoclear in 2005, a similar clear aligner product, developed to compete with Invisalign. (Figs. 7 Fall 2018 19
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Fall 2018: Page 19
