Method for Encoding of Anatomic Curves

A method for automatic generation of a design proposal for a tooth restoration comprising the steps of:

• a. sampling a characteristic curve of a preparation;
• b. encoding the curve of the preparation as a string by a curve encoding process;
• c. searching a database of previously completed designs having characteristic curves encoded as strings and measuring similarities between the string of the preparation and strings of the database;
• and
• d. generating a design proposal based on similarities of strings.

A method for generating design proposals for a tooth restoration from a case repository comprising the steps of:

• a. encoding the margin line of a preparation as a string with a curve-encoding alphabet by
• i. sampling the margin line at a constant density, and
• ii. associating a letter selected from the curve-encoding alphabet with each sample, wherein the letter represents a certain local behavior;
• and
• iii linking the letters together to form a string, wherein each letter represents a certain local behavior;
• b. searching a case repository of previously completed designs for similar cases using a Levenshtein distance to define a similarity measure between the preparation and previously completed designs of the case repository;
• and
• c. retrieving design proposals from the case repository based on similarities of margin lines.