Method of designing the surface of a dental prosthetic item consisting of three dimensional data

A method of designing the surface of a single dental prosthetic construct consisting of three-dimensional data, wherein three-dimensional data corresponding to a portion of a surface of an electronically stored tooth are used at least as part of the surface of the dental prosthetic construct to be fabricated, the method comprising the steps of:

• selecting the three-dimensional data to be used by identifying a desired portion of the surface of the electronically stored tooth;
• placing the selected three-dimensional data against a region of a preparation site existing in computer-readable memory as three-dimensional data;
• setting the position of selected three-dimensional data in the preparation site in at least one spatial axis and at least one direction of rotation;
• and
• adjusting borders of selected three-dimensional data by computer computation with reference to said preparation site,
• wherein the dental prosthetic construct is for a tooth to be restored and the electronically stored tooth exists in computer-readable memory and represents an image of an existing tooth in the mouth of the patient for whom the dental prosthetic construct is being designed that is different from the tooth to be restored.