Patient-Specific Dental Prosthesis And Gingival Contouring Developed By Predictive Modeling

A method of designing a patient-specific prosthesis for a current patient, comprising:

• accessing a database that stores information for each of a plurality of previous patients, the information for each previous patient including (i) clinical-factor information, (ii) prosthetic information relating to a prosthesis used on the previous patient and (iii) soft-tissue-outcome information;
• based on a relationship between (i) clinical factors and desired soft-tissue outcome for the current patient and (ii) the clinical-factor information and the soft-tissue-outcome information for a first previous patient of the plurality of previous patients, using at least a portion of the prosthetic information for the first previous patient as part of a baseline design for the patient-specific prosthesis;
• and
• modifying the baseline design to develop a final design for the patient-specific prosthesis.

A method of designing a dental prosthesis for a current patient, comprising:

• identifying, within a database, a subset of previous patients from a plurality of patients that had the same tooth replaced as the current patient;
• identifying, from the subset of previous patients, a first previous patient that has an actual prosthesis that is similar to a virtual prosthesis for a current patient;
• and
• using design features from the actual prosthesis from the identified first previous patient to develop a final design for the prosthesis for the current patient.

A method of designing a dental prosthesis for a current patient, comprising:

• receiving scan data from a mouth of a current patient;
• by use of the scan data, locating a dental implant that is installed in the mouth of the current patient;
• by use of the scan data, developing a desired soft-tissue outcome and a desired prosthesis shell for the current patient, the desired prosthesis shell representing an estimated volume adjacent to the dental implant that is to be occupied by the prosthesis;
• identifying, within a database, a first previous patient and a second previous patient each of whom has at least two clinical conditions similar to clinical conditions of the current patient;
• accessing, from the database, design information for a first prosthesis used on the first previous patient and for a second prosthesis used on the second previous patient;
• based on the design information and the desired prosthesis shell, developing a final design for the dental prosthesis for the current patient.