Methods, apparatuses, computer programs, and systems for creating a custom dental prosthesis using a CAD/CAM system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9877814-B2
Application number	US-201514701956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 1, 2015
Priority date	May 1, 2015
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

Preparation of a dental prosthesis that includes a gingiva part having retention holes for seating of manufactured teeth, with the retention holes being enlarged relative to the manufactured teeth. Wax in the enlarged retention holes permits adjustments in positioning of the manufactured teeth, and a helper structure preserves this positioning when the wax is removed and a curable gingiva material is filled into the retention holes. Aspects described herein include digital and/or automatic design of the dental prosthesis and its constituent pieces, as well as automated fabrication thereof in whole or in part, such as in a dental CAD/CAM system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for preparing a dental prosthesis, the method comprising:
generating a digital model of an oral cavity;
generating a digital design of the dental prosthesis that includes a gingiva part and a plurality of manufactured teeth based on the digital model of the oral cavity, wherein the gingiva part includes a plurality of retention holes for seating the plurality of manufactured teeth, respectively;
digitally enlarging the plurality of retention holes, wherein a size and geometry of each enlarged retention hole is determined based on a size and geometry of a corresponding manufactured tooth for the retention hole; and
fabricating the gingiva part of the dental prosthesis out of a final strength, gingiva colored base to create a fabricated gingiva part, wherein the fabricated gingiva part includes the enlarged plurality of retention holes.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
filling the enlarged plurality of retention holes with a wax.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
removing respective wax portions from the enlarged plurality of retention holes, each removed portion comprising a negative part of a corresponding manufactured tooth to be seated in the retention hole.

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
mounting the plurality of manufactured teeth to the enlarged plurality of retention holes, respectively; and
adjusting a position of at least one of the plurality of manufactured teeth relative to a corresponding enlarged retention hole.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:
attaching a helper structure to the position-adjusted manufactured teeth so as to preserve a positioning thereof relative to the gingiva part; and
removing any wax remaining within each of the enlarged plurality of retention holes.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
filling each of the enlarged plurality of retention holes with a liquid gingiva material; and
curing the liquid gingiva material.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
painting the cured liquid gingiva material to match the gingiva colored base of the fabricated gingiva part.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the generating of the digital design of the dental prosthesis is performed by a computer-aided design (CAD) system, and the fabricating of the gingiva part of the dental prosthesis is performed using a computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM) milling system.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital model of the oral cavity is generated from a digital impression of the oral cavity.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital model of the oral cavity is generated from an extraoral scan of a stone model, the stone model having been created from a physical impression of the oral cavity.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of manufactured teeth included in the digital design are representations of premanufactured teeth.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of manufactured teeth included in the digital design are computer-generated teeth.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of manufactured teeth included in the digital design are biogeneric teeth.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the digital design of the dental prosthesis includes (i) automatically selecting the plurality of manufactured teeth from among a plurality of premanufactured teeth and biogeneric teeth, and (ii) automatically determining the relative positioning of the plurality of manufactured teeth within the gingiva part of the dental prosthesis.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an instruction to modify a location, position, or size of an enlarged retention hole from a user.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
increasing or decreasing an outer margin of an enlarged retention hole of the enlarged plurality of retention holes in accordance with a user instruction.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fabricating of the gingiva part of the dental prosthesis is by an additive process.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fabricating of the gingiva part of the dental prosthesis is by a subtractive process.

19. A system for preparing a dental prosthesis, comprising:
a processor constructed to:
generate a digital model of an oral cavity,
generate a digital design of the dental prosthesis that includes a gingiva part and a plurality of manufactured teeth based on the digital model of the oral cavity, wherein the gingiva part includes a plurality of retention holes for seating the plurality of manufactured teeth, respectively, and
enlarge the plurality of retention holes, wherein a size and geometry of each enlarged retention hole is determined based on a size and geometry of a corresponding manufactured tooth for the retention hole.

20. The system according to claim 19 , wherein the processor is included in a dental computer-aided design/computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM) device.

21. The system according to claim 19 , further comprising:
a milling system constructed to fabricate the gingiva part out of a final strength, gingiva colored base based on the digital design, the gingiva part including the enlarged plurality of retention holes.

22. The system according to claim 19 , wherein the processor is further constructed to adjust at least one of a size, a position, and a location of a retention hole of the enlarged plurality of retention holes.

23. The system according to claim 22 , wherein the processor is further constructed to adjust the at least one of the size, the position, and the location of the retention hole based on stored information that includes at least one of (i) a measurement related to an adjacent tooth, (ii) a measurement related to sizing of an inner boundary of the retention hole, and (iii) a measurement related to sizing of an outer boundary of the retention hole.

24. The system of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further constructed to generate the digital model of the oral cavity from a digital impression of the oral cavity.

25. The system of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further constructed to generate the digital model of the oral cavity from an extraoral scan of a stone model, the stone model having been created from a physical impression of the oral cavity.

26. The system of claim 19 , further comprising:
a memory constructed to store specifications and geometries respectively corresponding to a plurality of premanufactured teeth,
wherein the plurality of manufactured teeth included in the digital design are representations of the plurality of premanufactured teeth.

27. The system of claim 19 , further comprising:
a memory constructed to store information on a plurality of biogeneric teeth, and
wherein the plurality of manufactured teeth included in the digital design correspond to biogeneric teeth whose information is stored in the memory.

28. The system of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further constructed to generate the digital design of the dental prosthesis by (i) automatically selecting the plurality of manufactured teeth from among a plurality of premanufactured teeth and biogeneric teeth, and (ii) automatically determining the relative positioning of the plurality of manufactured teeth within the gingiva pa

Assignees

• Sirona Dental Systems Gmbh

Inventors

• Schnitzspan Paul
• Jordan Thorsten

Classifications

• A61C13/082

  Cosmetic aspects, e.g. inlays; Determination of the colour (A61C19/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61C13/1003 Primary

  by embedding in base material · CPC title

• A61C13/0006

  Production methods · CPC title

• A61C13/0004 Primary

  Computer-assisted sizing or machining of dental prostheses · CPC title

• A61C13/01

  Palates or other bases or supports for the artificial teeth; Making same · CPC title