Customized Healing Abutment Design via Integrated CT Workflow
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods lack a system and user interface for designing a drill guide and customized healing abutment for dental implants that can be manufactured before surgical drilling, relying on separate scans and manual processes, which are inefficient and require additional patient visits.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize a CT scan to virtually design a drill guide and customized healing abutment, aligning with planned implant placement, allowing for simultaneous design and manufacture of both components before surgical drilling, reducing the need for additional scans and visits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If separate scans and manual processes are used for designing drill guide and healing abutment, then design accuracy can be maintained, but treatment time and patient visits increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the design processes for drill guide and healing abutment into a single integrated workflow. The system merges CT scan data processing, implant placement planning, and both component designs into one unified system that operates during a single patient visit, eliminating the need for separate scans and manual processes while maintaining design accuracy through integrated 3D modeling and virtual articulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary design and planning actions during the patient visit itself. The drill guide and healing abutment are designed, reviewed, and prepared for manufacturing while the patient is present, allowing same-day delivery of customized components without requiring additional preliminary scans or separate appointment visits.
2Ease of operation
If customized components are designed and manufactured before surgical drilling, then patient comfort and efficiency improve, but coordination and planning complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-contained design and planning within a single patient visit. All necessary measurements, implant placement planning, and component design are performed using the patient's own anatomical data captured during that visit, making the process self-sufficient without requiring external coordination for additional scans or appointments.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated system performs multiple functions within a single workflow: it captures patient anatomy, plans implant placement, designs the drill guide, designs the healing abutment, and prepares both for manufacturing. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate specialized processes into one unified system that handles all tasks during a single visit.
3Productivity
If a single CT scan is used for both drill guide and healing abutment design, then number of scans and visits are reduced, but design flexibility may be limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides dynamic design capabilities that allow adjustment and modification of both drill guide and healing abutment designs during the patient visit. The software enables real-time modifications to implant placement, component geometry, and design parameters based on clinical feedback, ensuring design flexibility is maintained even though a single CT scan is used as the foundation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses virtual articulation and 3D modeling as intermediary representations that bridge the single CT scan data with the final customized component designs. These digital models serve as flexible intermediaries that can be modified and adjusted without requiring additional physical scans, allowing design adaptability while maintaining productivity gains from using a single scan.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of virtually designing a customized healing abutment and a drill guide for a patient, where the method includes: obtaining a CT scan including at least part of the patient's jaw bone; virtually placing at least one implant relative to the jaw bone of the CT scan, such that a planned implant placement is defined; virtually designing: a drill guide for guiding the surgical drilling of a bore for the implant into the patient's jaw bone at the planned implant placement; and a customized healing abutment configured for shaping the soft tissue according to a target profile when arranged in the implant; where the design of the drill guide and of the customized healing abutment is at least partly based on the CT scan and on the planned implant placement.