Method and system for making dental restorations

A laser milling apparatus for laser milling a block of material in accordance with a milling trajectory, comprising:

• one or more lasers;
• optics associated with the one or more lasers;
• a milling chamber having therein a multi-axis displacement mechanism for supporting and displacing the block of material;
• one or more controllers for controlling the optics and the multi-axis displacement mechanism in accordance with the milling trajectory;
• one or more sensors to continuously monitor a position and a dimensional evolution of the block of material and provide feedback to the laser milling apparatus;
• wherein the milling trajectory is continuously adjusted by the laser milling apparatus using the feedback from the one or more sensors.

A method for making a dental restoration, comprising

• producing a 3D digital representation of a dental restoration model;
• selecting a block of dental restoration material having a size sufficient to encompass the dental restoration;
• creating a dental restoration milling trajectory of the dental restoration for the selected block based on the 3D digital representation of the dental restoration model;
• positioning the selected block in a laser milling apparatus;
• laser milling the dental restoration from the selected block in accordance with the milling trajectory;
• and
• continuously monitoring a position and a dimensional value of the selected block and adjusting the milling trajectory based on feedback provided by the monitoring of the laser milling of the selected block.