Dental Abutment Indexing Elements for Alignment and Locking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Dentists face difficulties in aligning dental abutments with dental fixtures due to the challenge of simultaneously engaging radial indexing protrusions with corresponding recesses, often requiring trial and error to find the correct orientation.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates leading and trailing indexing elements with distinct dimensions and placement on the dental component's fixture engagement portion, where the leading indexing elements guide the component into position, and the trailing elements provide a secure rotational lock, facilitating easier connection by concentrating the location-finding function to a smaller circumference area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If radial indexing protrusions and recesses are used for aligning the abutment with the fixture, then the connection achieves rotational locking, but the dentist experiences difficulty in aligning and must rotate the abutment back and forth to find the correct orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The indexing elements are divided into two functional groups: leading indexing elements (with larger play) that facilitate alignment and location-finding, and trailing indexing elements (with smaller play) that provide rotational locking. This segmentation allows the alignment and locking functions to be performed by different elements with optimized characteristics for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
Different indexing elements are given different local qualities: the leading indexing elements have larger radial play to enable easy location-finding and initial engagement, while the trailing indexing elements have smaller radial play to provide precise rotational locking. This local differentiation optimizes each element's contribution to the overall connection process.
2Reliability
If multiple indexing elements are distributed around the circumference for rotational locking, then secure connection is achieved, but the location-finding function is dispersed and reduces alignment clarity
Solution Approach 1:
The indexing elements are segmented into leading elements positioned at specific circumferential locations that provide clear location-finding cues, and trailing elements that provide distributed rotational locking. The leading elements are strategically placed to concentrate the location-finding function, making it easier for the dentist to identify the correct rotational position.
3Ease of manufacture
If all indexing elements have the same dimensions for uniform engagement, then manufacturing is simplified, but the engagement clarity and ease of alignment are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The indexing elements have different local qualities in terms of dimensions: leading indexing elements have larger radial play to facilitate easy location-finding and initial engagement, while trailing indexing elements have smaller radial play for precise locking. This dimensional differentiation improves engagement clarity despite requiring slightly more complex manufacturing.
Data Source
Figure 1~1C
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3E
AI summary
The invention relates to a dental component, such as an abutment, an abutment replica, an abutment blank, a customized abutment, a scan abutment, a digital transfer coping, an impression pick-up element, a healing cap or a driver, comprising at least one first indexing element and at least one second indexing element having an apical end located apically of the apical end of said first indexing element, wherein the second indexing element is designed to present a play with mating features of a dental fixture. The invention also relates to a dental implant which comprises a dental component having first and second indexing elements and a dental fixture having third and fourth indexing elements, wherein any play between the first and third indexing elements is smaller than a play between the second and fourth indexing elements. The invention also relates to a dental fixture.