Shade determination apparatus and method for specifying and determining colors for teeth and dental restorations
AssigneeIvoclar Vivadent AG
InventorsHarald Kerschbaumer, Armin Ospelt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a shade determination apparatus for teeth and dental restorations, a set of reference templates for comparing to a patient's tooth is provided. Based on the coloration of the reference template, the shade of a tooth or of a restoration to be employed can be determined. The reference templates are produced in a layer arrangement, taking into consideration layer thickness, material selection, or both, that corresponds to the tooth or the dental restoration to be employed. A storage apparatus stores the coloration of the reference templates, and the layering of the tooth or of the dental restoration can be matched and determined based on partial images from an image of the patient's tooth.
Claims18
A method for determining a patient's tooth shade for replacement or restoration thereof, which comprises:
- generating at least a partial electronic image of a patient's tooth wherein the image includes color information representative of the patient's tooth shade;
- electronically storing color information representative of a plurality of tooth shades in the form of a set of reference templates produced in a layer arrangement and including at least one of layer thickness or material selection;
- and
- comparing the color information of the image with the stored tooth shade color information to identify reference templates that may be used to prepare a tooth replacement or restoration having a color that corresponds to the patient's tooth shade.
A method for determining a patient's tooth shade for replacement or restoration thereof, which comprises:
- generating at least a partial electronic image of a patient's tooth wherein the image includes color information representative of the patient's tooth shade;
- electronically storing color information representative of a plurality of tooth shades in the form of a set of reference templates produced in a layer arrangement and including layer thickness and material selection;
- and
- comparing the color information of the image with the stored tooth shade color information to identify reference templates that may be used to prepare a tooth replacement or restoration having a color that corresponds to the patient's tooth shade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.