Computer-implemented dental restoration design

A computer-implemented method of providing dental restoration comprising, executing a plurality of instructions on a computing system to perform the steps of:

• obtaining a virtual three dimensional representation of at least a portion of a patient's dentition comprising at least one preparation tooth and at least one neighboring tooth of the patient, through a user interface, wherein the preparation tooth comprises a tooth of the patient that has been modified to accommodate a dental restoration;
• forming an initial dental restoration design for the preparation tooth comprising the steps of:
• lining a margin of the at least one preparation tooth of the virtual three dimensional representation of the patient's dentition,
• identifying cusps on the virtual three dimensional representation of the neighboring tooth of the patient's dentition;
• identifying buccal cusps on the virtual three dimensional representation of the portion of the patient's dentition and fitting a first buccal arc to the buccal cusps,
• identifying lingual cusps on the virtual three dimensional representation of the portion of the patient's dentition and fitting a first lingual arc to the lingual cusps,
• providing a library arch form of a virtual tooth library comprising a second buccal arc and a second lingual arc, wherein the second buccal arc and the second lingual arc have been fitted to buccal cusps and lingual cusps of library teeth of the library arch form, respectively, wherein the library teeth correspond to the virtual three dimensional representation,
• scaling the second buccal arc and the second lingual arc to correspond with the first buccal arc and the first lingual arc, respectively,
• scaling library teeth of the library arch form that correspond to the at least one preparation tooth and the at least one neighboring tooth of the patient's dentition, and
• registering the virtual three dimensional representation of the patient's dentition and the scaled library arch form;
• and
• proposing a dental restoration design for the preparation tooth that corresponds to scaled preparation tooth of the library arch form,
• wherein scaling library teeth comprises scaling a first library tooth corresponding to a preparation tooth based on a first neighboring tooth of the preparation tooth and a second neighboring tooth of the preparation tooth, with greater weight given to a closer neighboring tooth.

A computer-implemented method of determining a minimum distance for a dental restoration comprising,

• executing a plurality of instructions on a computing system to perform the steps of:
• obtaining a virtual three dimensional representation of a patient's dentition comprising a preparation tooth in occlusion with a portion of an opposing dentition;
• forming an offset surface component in place of the preparation tooth of the virtual three dimensional representation that is larger than the preparation tooth, wherein the preparation tooth comprises a tooth of the patient that has been modified to accommodate a dental restoration;
• obtaining a minimum distance parameter for the dental restoration;
• measuring a distance between the offset surface component and the opposing dentition and comparing the distance to the minimum distance parameter and determining that the minimum distance parameter is not achieved;
• identifying a location of the preparation tooth corresponding to a location of the offset surface component that does not meet the minimum distance requirement;
• and
• providing a virtual reduction coping displaying a protrusion area for reducing the preparation tooth to achieve the minimum distance parameter, wherein the virtual reduction coping model comprises a space for the protrusion area of the preparation tooth to be reduced to protrude through,
• wherein the minimum distance parameter comprises a minimum thickness requirement of the dental restoration based on a material selected for the dental restoration.