Method for estimating at least one of shape, position and orientation of a dental restoration

A computer assisted method for estimating a shape, position and orientation of a dental restoration for a partially edentulous patient, the method comprising:

• indicating one or more teeth requiring a dental restoration, for which an estimation of said shape, position and orientation is to be generated, and indicating a remaining tooth or teeth available for estimating;
• providing a virtual teeth setup comprising one or more teeth corresponding to the one or more teeth requiring said dental restoration as well as one or more teeth corresponding to the indicated remaining tooth or teeth, wherein said virtual teeth setup comprises separated surface meshes of individual teeth positioned in a dental arch or segment thereof;
• providing a digitized surface mesh of an intra-oral region of said patient comprising said indicated remaining tooth or teeth and the region of the one or more teeth requiring said dental restoration;
• applying and optimizing an energy function, representing a quality measure for said virtual teeth setup, by adapting the virtual teeth setup to one or more of said indicated remaining tooth or teeth in said digitized surface mesh of the intra-oral region of said patient given a statistical model, for a given dentition or segment thereof, for (i) the shapes of individual teeth, (ii) relations between shapes of neighbouring teeth and (iii) relations between positions and/or orientations of neighbouring teeth, said energy function comprising a first measure indicative of a fit between said patient's anatomy and said adapted virtual teeth setup, and a second measure indicating a probability of said adapted virtual teeth setup given said statistical model;
• and
• estimating said shape, position and orientation of said dental restoration using the adapted virtual teeth setup resulting from said applied and optimized energy function.