US 5,151,044 A · Blanks for the manufacture of artificial teeth and crowns

Abstract

A blank for the manufacture of artificial teeth, either replacement whole teeth or crowns, permits a tooth to be produced by machining from the blank which comprises a layered block of synthetic plastics materials, the layers being of predetermined varying color (hue), chroma, value and translucency to simulate the pulp, dentine and enamel layers in a real tooth, thereby providing an artificial tooth with the distribution and depth of color of a real tooth. The blank has a core portion including a reference point for machining purposes and the layers are applied over the core portion, their thicknesses and thickness distributions being predetermined so as to be able to obtain different tooth colors by selective removal from the layers. Thus, the tooth color is varied by milling the tooth from a different section of the layered block to vary the thicknesses of the layers, at least at the labial, mesial, distal and occlusal surfaces, and so as to obtain a custom tooth matched very closely to a patient's real tooth color and pattern. The teeth can be manufactured from materials with a hardness closely matching that of a real tooth to provide similar wear properties.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A blank for the manufacture therefrom of a single artificial tooth of a desired color by the removal of material from the blank, the blank comprising:

a core portion having lingual, labial, mesial, distal gingival and occlusal sides, the core portion approximating in shape at least at its libial, mesial and distal sides to the shape to a corresponding core portion of a single tooth to be manufactured therefrom;
reference means on the blank establishing a reference point from which the removal of material from the blank can be determined;
a first layer of another material overlaying at least the occlusal, labial, mesial and distal surfaces of the said core portion,
a second layer of a further material overlaying at least the occlusal, labial, mesial and distal surfaces of the first layer;
the thickness of the said first and second layers and the distributions of the their respective thicknesses over at least the said labial, mesial and distal sides cooperating together, and the materials of the said core portion and of the first and second layers cooperating together, to provide at least at the labial, mesial and distal surfaces the required color for the tooth upon selective removal of material of the first and second layers from the blank to leave a single tooth-shaped artificial tooth.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Blanks for the manufacture of artificial teeth and crowns

Life of this patent

Blanks for the manufacture of artificial teeth and crowns

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23