Wave-Interface Zirconia Dental Blanks for Tooth-Mucosa Aesthetics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dental prosthetic blanks require significant manual effort and complex processes to achieve lifelike aesthetics, particularly in mimicking the transition from teeth to oral mucosa, and often compromise mechanical properties due to the use of Er3+-based infiltration solutions, leading to instability and weakened structures.
Innovation Solution
A dental prosthesis blank with two zirconium oxide ceramic layers having a wave-shaped interface, differing in color and translucency, allows for easy machining and monolithic production, eliminating the need for subsequent infiltration and ensuring high mechanical strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If Er3+-based infiltration solutions are used to color the gingival area, then color imitation of oral mucosa is improved, but mechanical strength and stability are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The gingival area is pre-colored during the blank manufacturing process using yellowish pigments incorporated into the zirconium oxide ceramic material before sintering. This preliminary coloring action eliminates the need for subsequent infiltration with Er3+-based solutions, thereby avoiding the mechanical weakening and instability that would result from post-manufacturing chemical infiltration.
2Ease of manufacture
If manual layering or pressing of gingival portions is used, then aesthetic restoration is improved, but production time and labor intensity are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the tooth structure and gingival area into a single monolithic zirconium oxide ceramic blank with a wave-shaped interface. This combining of previously separate manufacturing steps (tooth fabrication and gingival restoration) into one integrated blank allows for automated CAD/CAM milling of the entire prosthesis, dramatically reducing manual labor and production time while maintaining aesthetic quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The gingival area is pre-formed with the correct wave-shaped interface geometry during blank manufacturing, before the actual prosthesis fabrication begins. This preliminary formation of the gingival structure eliminates the need for subsequent manual layering, pressing, or post-treatment steps, thereby reducing production time and labor intensity significantly.
3Productivity
If zirconium oxide blank with pre-formed gingival area is used, then production simplicity is improved, but color stability and mechanical properties are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a homogeneous zirconium oxide ceramic material composition throughout the entire blank, including both the tooth area and the gingival area. The yellowish pigment is uniformly incorporated into the zirconium oxide matrix, ensuring consistent material properties, color stability, and mechanical strength throughout the monolithic structure, eliminating the heterogeneity and associated problems of composite or infiltrated structures.
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
The blank efficiently replicates natural tooth and mucosa appearance while providing strong, stress-free restorations with improved aesthetics and mechanical properties, reducing production time and complexity.
Implementation Method 1
after shaping, e.g. by computer-controlled milling (CAM) and subsequent sintering
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The present invention relates to a blank for dental prostheses, which has a first layer on the basis of zirconium oxide ceramics and a second layer on the basis of zirconium oxide ceramics, the first layer and the second layer differing in terms of their color and defining an interface, the interface, over the dental arch, being in the form of undulations with alternating wave troughs and wave crests and the crest lines of the wave crests, when seen from a top view of the interface, radially extending in the mesial distal direction.