Method of making a tooth mold

A method of making artificial dental teeth each having a molded coating and high definition labial striations comprising the steps of:

• providing a dental tooth model,
• scanning said tooth model,
• receiving reflections from said tooth model,
• translating said reflections into electronic signals,
• converting said electronic signals into reflection data, editing said reflection data to add high definition labial striations using a design program to provide edited data and
• fabricating a metal tooth mold part, said fabricating step comprising using said edited data to direct machine milling of said tooth mold part, said milling comprising making a first pass with a first mill and making a second pass with a second mill, said first mill having a first mill end, said second mill having a second mill end, said second mill end being smaller in size than said first mill end, and
• repeatedly molding in said mold part, high definition artificial teeth each having a molded coating and high definition labial striations.

A method of molding a artificial dental teeth each having a molded coating and labial striations comprising the steps of:

• scanning a three-dimensional replica of a tooth having three-dimensional surface locations while rotating said replica, receiving reflections from said replica while rotating said replica,
• translating said reflections into electronic signals, and
• digitizing said electronic signals into reflection data editing said reflection data to add high definition labial striations to provide edited data in a computer using a CAD/CAM program, and
• creating a tool path program using said edited data, and fabricating said tooth mold, said fabricating step comprising, using said tool path program to direct machine milling of a first, second and third metal artificial dental teeth mold parts,
• said milling of said first metal mold part from a first metal part comprising making a first pass with a first mill and making a second pass with a second mill to mill said first metal part, said first mill having a first mill end, said second mill having a second mill end, said second mill end being smaller in size than said first mill end,
• said milling of said second metal mold part from a second metal part comprising making a first pass with said first mill and making a second pass with said second mill to mill said second mold part,
• said milling of said third metal mold part from a third metal part comprising making a first pass with said first mill and making a second pass with said second mill to mill said third mold part.

A method of molding artificial dental teeth each having a molded coating and labial striations, comprising:

• milling multiple patterns of artificial teeth in first and second portions of mold making material to make first and second mold parts, said milling being directed by a milling program which uses edited data, said edited data being provided by editing reflection data using a design program, said reflection data being representative of the surface of a tooth model, said edited data being representative of the surface of said artificial tooth, said edited data being adapted by said milling program to direct said milling of said first and second mold parts,
• said milling of said first mold part comprising executing a first pass with a first mill and executing a second pass with a second mill, said first mill having a first mill end, said second mill having a second mill end, said second mill end being smaller in size than said first mill end;
• said milling of said second mold part comprising executing a first pass with a third mill and executing a second pass with a fourth mill, said third mill having a third mill end, said fourth mill having a fourth mill end, said third mill end being smaller in size than said fourth mill end;
• repeatedly molding in said mold high definition artificial dental teeth each having a molded coating and labial striations.