Custom healing cap for dental implantology and method for design and manufacturing thereof

A computer based design method for a removable temporary custom healing cap used with an implant at an implantation site, the method being based on a 3D computer plan of the implant using digital representations of positions of the implant in a mouth of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:

• scanning the implantation site or an impression of the implantation site;
• creating a 3-D implant plan of the implant comprising digital representations of possible positions of the implant based on grey value data of the patient, the grey value data including information about a thickness and/or a profile of the soft tissue of the patient along a jaw line prior to dental implant placement, the plan including an emergence profile for shaping of soft tissue by the healing cap subsequent to installing the implant;
• loading the 3-D implant plan into a computer;
• providing information about a desired prosthetic set-up;
• loading the information about a desired prosthetic set-up into the computer;
• providing a 3-D representation of the patient anatomy;
• loading the 3-D representation of the patient anatomy into the computer;
• combining the 3-D implant plan with information about the desired prosthetic setup and the 3-D representation of the patient anatomy;
• designing a temporary healing cap based on the 3-D computer plan of the implant, the desired prosthetic set-up and the 3-D representation of the patient anatomy, the healing cap design including a lower, sub-gingival part, a coronal part and a marginal edge, the marginal edge and the lower sub-gingival part being a function of the desired outcome wherein the marginal edge further comprises a transition between the lower sub-gingival part and the coronal part of the healing cap at the gum level;
• the designing step further including defining said coronal part of the temporary healing cap to extend cranially with respect to the marginal edge so as to attain a dome-like shape having no protrusions or substantially no protrusions in order to allow the use of a removable prosthesis during healing, wherein a surface curvature of the gum at said implantation site is used to define the dome-like shape;
• storing the marginal edge and the lower sub-gingival part of the healing cap in a memory of the computer;
• and
• wherein the temporary healing cap is configured to support and shape the soft tissue according to the emergence profile determined by the 3-D implant plan for prosthetic restoration.

A method for soft tissue management using a custom healing cap for dental implantology, comprising the steps of:

• providing a temporary custom healing cap, the custom healing cap designed by scanning an implantation site or an impression of the implantation site;
• creating a 3-D computer plan of a digital implant comprising digital representations of possible positions of the digital implant in the mouth of the patient based on a first grey value data scan of the patient, the grey value data scan providing gray value data wherein the grey value data includes information about a thickness and/or a profile of the soft tissue of the patient along a jaw line prior to dental implant placement,
• loading the 3-D implant plan into a computer,
• providing information about a desired prosthetic set-up,
• loading the information about a desired prosthetic set-up into the computer,
• providing a 3-D representation of the patient anatomy,
• loading the 3-D representation of the patient anatomy into the computer,
• designing a healing cap based on the 3-D implant plan, the desired prosthetic set-up and the 3-D representation of the patient anatomy, the healing cap design including a desired marginal edge, wherein the desired marginal edge further comprises a transition between a lower, sub-gingival part of the healing cap and a coronal part of the healing cap, the marginal edge defining a closed 3-D curve at the gum level,
• the designing step further including defining said coronal part of the healing cap to extend cranially with respect to the desired marginal edge so as to attain a dome-like shape having no protrusions or substantially no protrusions in order to allow the use of a removable prosthesis during healing, wherein a surface curvature of the gum at said implantation site is used to define the dome-like shape;
• storing the desired marginal edge in a memory of the computer, and
• processing the designed healing cap and sending it to one of computer driven manufacturing equipment or rapid prototyping/rapid manufacturing machines;
• selecting one of the digital representations of possible positions of an implant in the mouth of the patient and implanting the implant in a jawbone of the patient in the position of the selected digital representation;
• and
• placing the temporary custom healing cap processed in the processing step over the implant immediately after the step of implanting the implant, the temporary custom healing cap supporting and shaping the soft tissue according to the desired prosthetic set-up which includes a desired emergence profile for the prosthetic.