Guide Rail for Basal Shortening of Prosthetic Teeth
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for shortening prefabricated prosthetic teeth to adapt to patient jaw anatomy are inefficient, requiring manual skills and expensive CAM machines, leading to inconsistent results and lack of standardization.
Innovation Solution
A method using a guide rail generated from CAD data to accurately guide a milling head for precise basal shortening of prosthetic teeth, allowing for automated or semi-automated machining without the need for expensive equipment, using a mount that stabilizes the tooth and enables precise removal of defined volumes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual skills and expensive CAM machines are used to shorten prosthetic teeth, then machining precision can be achieved, but device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a guide rail as an intermediary component that mediates between the simple handheld milling head and the complex CAM machine. The guide rail contains the milling head and directs it along a predetermined path, providing the necessary precision without requiring a complex automated machining center. This intermediary device enables precise tooth shortening using simple, inexpensive equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail is created as a physical copy or replica of a virtual model generated from the patient's dental scan data and the desired prosthesis design. This copying process allows the complex precision requirements to be embedded in the guide rail's geometry, which then guides the simple milling head to replicate the precise path without requiring complex control systems.
2Ease of manufacture
If manual skills are used for tooth shortening, then equipment cost is reduced, but manufacturing precision and consistency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The precise machining path is predetermined and embodied in the guide rail before the actual tooth shortening process. The virtual model is created first, then used to generate the guide rail geometry that contains all the precision information. This preliminary action transfers the precision requirements from the operator's skill to the pre-fabricated guide rail, ensuring consistent results regardless of the operator's expertise.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail acts as an intermediary that carries the precision information from the digital design to the manual machining process. It mediates between the simple handheld tool and the complex precision requirements, enabling unskilled or semi-skilled operators to achieve consistent, precise results without requiring advanced manual skills or expensive automated equipment.
3Extent of automation
If expensive CAM machines are used, then automation level increases, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex automated mechanical system of a CAM machine with a simpler system consisting of a handheld milling head guided by a physical guide rail. The automation function is shifted from the machining equipment to the guide rail's predetermined geometry, which passively directs the tool along the correct path without requiring motors, controllers, or complex mechanical mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail serves as a physical copy of the virtual machining path, transferring the automated precision requirements from the digital domain to a simple physical guide. This copying allows the benefits of automated precision to be achieved without the complexity and cost of automated machining equipment, using only a simple handheld tool following the pre-defined rail.
4Productivity
If standardized methods are implemented, then productivity increases, but adaptability to individual patient anatomy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail is customized for each patient's specific anatomy and prosthesis requirements, with its geometry locally adapted to the individual case. This local customization allows the standardized, efficient guide rail methodology to be applied while maintaining full adaptability to varying patient needs. Each guide rail embodies the specific precision path required for that particular patient's tooth shortening.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows for efficient standardization of the process methodology while adapting parameters such as guide rail geometry, tooth selection, and shortening dimensions to individual patient requirements. The standardized workflow of creating a virtual model, generating a guide rail, and using a handheld mill can be efficiently repeated, with each instance customized to the specific patient's anatomy and prosthesis design needs.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for producing a guide rail having the steps of:(A) generating or providing a virtual 3D model of a dental prosthesis with at least one virtual model of a machined prosthetic tooth to be arranged in a prosthesis base;(B) calculating a volume to be removed from a prefabricated prosthetic tooth;(C) generating a virtual model of a guide rail which is fixed to a mount for fastening the prefabricated prosthetic tooth such that the guide rail enables guidance of a milling head and/or a cutting tool of known dimensions, in such a manner that the volume to be removed from the prefabricated prosthetic tooth is traversed with the milling head; and(D) producing a physical guide rail on the basis of the virtual model of the guide rail using a CAM method.Also disclosed are an apparatus for implementing the method, a method for basally shortening prosthetic teeth, and a method for producing a dental prosthesis with such a method for producing a guide rail. The invention further relates to a guide rail produced with such a method and to a dental prosthesis produced with such a method for producing a dental prosthesis.