Method and apparatus for selecting non-opacious dental materials

A method for producing a dental restoration body for application to a basic dental structure, said restoration body being made of a translucent dental material, wherein said method is a part of a CAD/CAM-process and said method comprises the steps of:

• providing a dataset concerning said dental restoration body for application to the basic dental structure using computer aided designs methods;
• providing reference data concerning relevant optical properties of different translucent dental materials and a dependency between relevant optical properties of said basic dental structure and said translucent dental materials, target values for desired optical properties of said dental restoration body to be produced, thickness of said restoration body and said relevant optical properties of said translucent dental material;
• determining said relevant optical properties of said basic dental structure;
• determining a target value corresponding to said desired optical properties of said restoration body when applied to said basic dental structure to be produced;
• determining a thickness of said dental restoration body to be produced on at least one area of said basic dental structure which is relevant for the appearance of said dental restoration body;
• and
• selecting a dental material for said dental restoration body based upon said reference data and said dependency between said optical properties of said basic dental structure and said translucent dental materials.

A computer program for determining an appropriate translucent dental material or construction for use in producing a dental restoration for use with an existing dental structure, said computer program comprising:

• a data base containing optical properties of different translucent dental materials or constructions and a dependency between optical properties of said dental restoration, said existing dental structure and said translucent dental materials or constructions;
• an input routine effective to receive information, said information comprising a desired optical property and thickness of said dental restoration to be produced, said thickness representative of an area relevant to an appearance of the dental structure in use with the existing dental structure;
• and
• a selection routine effective to determine an appropriate dental material or construction for use in producing said dental restoration based upon a relationship between said desired optical property and thickness of said dental restoration, said optical properties of said existing dental structure and said translucent dental material or construction.