Block-Based Denture Tooth Arrangement for Occlusion and Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for designing dentures are time-consuming and prone to undesirably affecting previous tooth transformations when individual teeth are designed, lacking efficient mechanisms to maintain both aesthetic and functional design rules during the virtual design process.
Innovation Solution
The method involves grouping denture teeth into blocks and applying design rules enforced by a computer, allowing for transformations like relocation and rotation while maintaining functional and aesthetic rules, ensuring a desired dental setup through digital arrangement and transformation tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If denture teeth are designed one at a time, then each tooth can be individually adjusted for aesthetic and functional requirements, but the design process becomes time-consuming and previous tooth transformations may be undesirably affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the denture teeth into blocks (e.g., anterior blocks, posterior blocks, premolar blocks) where each block contains multiple teeth. This segmentation allows the system to enforce design rules at the block level rather than individual tooth level, significantly reducing design time while maintaining positioning precision through automated rule enforcement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-establishes design rules for tooth blocks before the actual design process. These rules include occlusion relationships, interproximal contacts, and aesthetic guidelines. By having these rules ready in advance, the system can automatically enforce them during tooth transformation without time-consuming manual adjustments, resolving the contradiction between precision and time.
2Reliability
If design rules are strictly enforced by computer automation, then design consistency and correctness are improved, but user transformation attempts may be prevented or overridden
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic design rule enforcement where the system monitors user transformations in real-time and selectively applies rules based on the current design state and user intent. Rather than rigidly preventing all transformations, the system adapts its enforcement to maintain consistency while allowing necessary user adjustments, thus balancing reliability with operational ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to users when design rule violations are detected during tooth transformation. This feedback mechanism allows users to understand why certain transformations are restricted or modified, enabling them to make informed decisions while maintaining design consistency. The feedback loop resolves the contradiction by making the enforcement process transparent and collaborative rather than restrictive.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple design rules are applied to maintain occlusion and interproximal contact, then functional and aesthetic quality is improved, but the complexity of the design system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments design rules into categories (occlusion rules, interproximal contact rules, aesthetic rules) and applies them to specific tooth blocks. This segmentation organizes the complexity into manageable modules, making the system easier to implement and maintain while ensuring comprehensive coverage of all design requirements for high manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates universal design rule templates that can be applied across different tooth blocks and scenarios. These multi-functional rules handle multiple design concerns (occlusion, contact, aesthetics) in a unified framework, reducing overall system complexity compared to having separate specialized rules for each function, while still achieving high dental setup accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for digitally designing a denture for a patient, where the denture includes a plurality of denture teeth, where designing the denture includes transforming denture teeth of the denture, wherein the method includes obtaining a 3D scan of the upper jaw and lower jaw of the patient; obtaining a digital 3D arrangement of the denture teeth, where the denture teeth are pre-set in occlusion; digitally arranging the 3D scan of the upper jaw and lower jaw relative to the 3D arrangement of the denture teeth; digitally grouping the denture teeth in four groups, the four groups includes an upper anterior group, a lower anterior group, a left posterior group, and a right posterior group; and digitally arranging the upper anterior group first, the left and right posterior groups second and the lower anterior group third.