Virtual design of attachment of dental model in articulator

A method of virtually designing an attachment of a dental model to be manufactured of a patient's set of teeth in a physical dental articulator, where the method comprises:

• obtaining a virtual 3D dental model of the patient's set of teeth;
• obtaining a virtual dental articulator corresponding to the physical dental articulator, where the physical dental articulator comprises an upper arm and a lower arm and has a known distance between the upper arm and the lower arm in a static position of the physical dental articulator;
• setting or providing the 3D virtual dental model in the virtual dental articulator corresponding to an orientation which the dental model to be manufactured is intended to be arranged within the physical dental articulator;
• setting an initial height of the 3D virtual dental model;
• providing one or more virtual spacer elements with predetermined heights, where each kind of the virtual spacer elements has a corresponding physical spacer element;
• where the total height of the physical spacer elements is a combined height of all the physical spacer elements used for attaching the dental model to be manufactured in the physical dental articulator;
• such that a height of the dental model to be manufactured and the total height of the physical spacer elements equal the distance between the upper arm and the lower arm of the physical dental articulator, whereby the dental model to be manufactured is adapted to be attached between the upper arm and the lower arm in the physical dental articulator by the one or more kinds of physical spacer elements;
• applying the height of the dental model to be manufactured and the distance between the upper arm and the lower arm in said static position of the physical dental articulator to calculate an initial total height of the physical spacer elements by calculating a difference between the physical dental articulator height and the height of the dental model;
• determining if any combination and/or number of the physical spacer elements provides the initial total height of the physical spacer elements;
• if no combination and/or number of the different kinds of physical spacer elements provides the initial total height of the physical spacer elements, then:
• calculate an adjusted total height of the physical spacer elements, which is possible to obtain using the physical spacer elements;
• and
• calculate an adjusted height of the dental model to be manufactured, such that the height of the dental model to be manufactured and the adjusted total height of the physical spacer elements equal the distance between the upper arm and the lower arm of the physical dental articulator.

A method of virtually designing an attachment of a dental model to be manufactured of a patient's set of teeth in a physical dental articulator, where the dental model to be manufactured is to be attached between an upper arm and a lower arm of the physical dental articulator by one or more spacer elements, where the method comprises:

• obtaining a virtual 3D dental model of the patient's set of teeth, wherein the virtual 3D dental model comprises an upper part and a lower part representing a patient's upper jaw and the patient's lower jaw, respectively;
• obtaining a virtual dental articulator corresponding to the physical dental articulator, where the physical dental articulator has a distance between the upper arm and the lower arm in a static position of the physical dental articulator;
• setting or providing the 3D virtual dental model in the virtual dental articulator corresponding to an orientation in which the dental model to be manufactured is intended to be arranged within the physical dental articulator;
• obtaining one or more virtual spacer elements, where each virtual spacer element has a corresponding physical spacer element for attaching the dental model to be manufactured to the physical articulator;
• determining a height of the dental model to be manufactured, where the height of the dental model to be manufactured is a combined height of a lower and an upper part of the dental model to be manufactured;
• calculating a total height of the physical spacer elements by adding (1) a distance between the upper arm of the physical dental articulator and a lowest part of the upper part and (2) a distance between the lower arm of the physical dental articulator and a highest part of the lower part;
• and
• determining a combination of physical spacer elements, taking into account a height of each of the physical spacer elements and a number of the physical spacer elements, to obtain the total height of the physical spacer elements calculated in the calculating step, wherein a projected height of the dental model to be manufactured onto a vertical axis of the articulator and the calculated total height of the physical spacer elements without inclusion of height of at least one spacer element that overlaps with the height of the dental model when the dental model is arranged in the articulator together equal the distance between the upper arm and the lower arm of the physical dental articulator in said static position;
• wherein:
• the orientation comprises an angle of an occlusion plane of the 3D virtual dental model relative to a horizontal plane of the virtual dental articulator such that the 3D virtual dental model is inclined relative to the horizontal plane when arranged in the virtual dental articulator.