Dental Prosthetic Manufacturing via Optical Positioning and Digital Modeling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for manufacturing dental prosthetics and bridges face challenges in achieving tight bonding between the abutment tooth and the crown, as they rely on manual adjustments and do not utilize the patient's original tooth contour effectively, leading to inefficiencies and limited patient choice.
Innovation Solution
A method involving preoperative scanning to create digital models, optical positioning for precise tooth turning, and CAD/CAM manufacturing to produce customized dental prosthetics that closely match the patient's original tooth structure, allowing for tight bonding and patient-specific designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional manual methods are used for duplicating dental casts and carving crowns, then flexibility in crown design is maintained, but manufacturing time and labor requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical operations (carving, fitting, adjusting) with automated optical-mechanical systems. The optical positioning system guides the turning tool automatically, substituting the technician's manual skills with a computer-controlled system that reads digital models and executes precise cutting paths, thereby increasing productivity while managing complexity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the workflow from physical manual manipulation to digital parameter-based control. By converting tooth contours and crown designs into digital 3D models with precise geometric parameters, the system enables automated manufacturing where cutting paths, tool speeds, and positioning are all controlled by numerical parameters rather than manual gestures, improving efficiency and consistency.
2Productivity
If digital CAD/CAM systems are fully implemented for automatic crown production, then manufacturing efficiency increases, but the ability to retain and adapt original tooth contours is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary scanning and digital modeling of the patient's actual tooth contours before manufacturing begins. By capturing the original tooth geometry in advance and storing it as a digital reference, the system preserves adaptability to patient-specific anatomy while enabling subsequent automated manufacturing processes to efficiently produce customized crowns that fit the recorded contours.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent separates the crown manufacturing process into distinct functional modules: scanning/acquisition module, digital modeling module, positioning module, and turning manufacturing module. This segmentation allows each module to be optimized independently - the scanning system captures original contours for adaptability, while the turning system executes efficient automated manufacturing, with digital data serving as the interface between them.
3Manufacturing precision
If optical positioning systems are used for precise turning, then bonding accuracy between abutment and crown improves, but equipment complexity and initial cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an optical positioning system as an intermediary between the digital model and the physical turning process. This intermediary captures real-time positional data during tooth preparation, creates a digital record of the actual abutment geometry, and uses this information to guide the crown fabrication, ensuring precise bonding accuracy while keeping the core turning mechanism relatively simple through software-based guidance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables precise recording and reproduction of the patient's tooth structure, facilitating efficient and accurate manufacturing of dental prosthetics with improved bonding and patient choice, reducing manual intervention and time consumption.
Implementation Method 1
an optical space 3D positioning manner is used to record a whole process of turning a tooth of the patient
Data Source
AI summary
A method for digital archiving and manufacturing of dental prosthetics and a prosthesis, and teaching and training for the method are provided. The method mainly includes the following steps: preoperative scanning: creating a first digital model file; optical positioning and turning treatment: creating a second digital model file from a turning process; physical model calculation: creating reversely an autologous crown model file of a patient; and fixed denture manufacturing: manufacturing, according to the second digital model file and the autologous crown model file, a fixed denture that meets needs of the patient, so that an inner layer structure of a crown of the fixed denture can be tightly bound to an abutment, and it may be decided to retain an original crown contour according to needs. A tooth model based on a teaching digital model file can be used for teaching and training of a trainee with the foregoing method.