A method of manufacturing a dental prosthesis comprising a tooth prosthesis for implantation into a jawbone cavity of a pre-identified patient, the tooth prosthesis comprising a root portion, an occlusally facing portion, and a custom crown portion as an integral part of the tooth prosthesis prior to integrating the tooth prosthesis into an embedding portion of the jawbone cavity of the pre-identified patient, the crown portion comprising or integrated with the occlusally facing portion, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving imaging data describing a three-dimensional shape of an outer surface portion of a root portion of a nonfunctional natural tooth of the pre-identified patient,
- deriving digital design data defining a three-dimensional shape of an outer surface of a root portion of the tooth prosthesis responsive to the received imaging data, and a three-dimensional shape of an outer surface of an occlusally facing interface of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis to receive the occlusally facing portion of the tooth prosthesis,
- the three-dimensional shape of the outer surface of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis dimensionally matching a three-dimensional shape of a corresponding outer surface portion of the nonfunctional natural tooth of the pre-identified patient, and
- the deriving step includes combining a plurality of artificially created surface elements with a plurality of naturally shaped surface elements of the root portion, the plurality of naturally shaped surface elements being selected from the group comprising:
- shape elements included in the received imaging data, and
- shape elements created in close vicinity of surface elements included in the received imaging data;
- manufacturing the root portion of the tooth prosthesis at least partially responsive to the digital design data to form at least a substantial portion of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis, to include shaping at least a substantial portion of the outer surface portion of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis to conform with and to substantially dimensionally match the three-dimensional shape of the outer surface of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis derived from the three-dimensional shape of the corresponding outer surface portion of the root portion of the nonfunctional natural tooth, so that the entire outer surface portion of the root portion of the tooth prosthesis that corresponds to an entire embedding jaw bone cavity surface associated with the nonfunctional natural tooth of the pre-identified patient is sized and shaped so as to not exceed dimensionally a natural pre-insertion three-dimensional shape of the respective embedding jaw bone cavity surface when the tooth prosthesis is clinically positioned therein;
- and
- manufacturing a custom-shaped dental splint configured to provide temporary primary stability to the tooth prosthesis in a final geometrical relation to the embedding portion of the jawbone cavity of the pre-identified patient, to include the steps of:
- receiving imaging data describing a three-dimensional shape and position of an outer surface portion of a crown portion of at least one adjacent tooth immediately adjacent the jawbone cavity of the pre-identified patient to receive the tooth prosthesis in respect to its geometrical relation to the jawbone cavity to receive the tooth prosthesis,
- deriving digital data defining a custom-shaped splint design of the custom-shaped dental splint responsive to the received imaging data, the custom-shaped dental splint having an elongate tooth-surface contoured body including a tooth-facing outer surface, a non-tooth-facing outer surface opposite the tooth-facing surface, and an outer perimeter surface extending therebetween, the tooth-facing outer surface including a first three-dimensional shape portion dimensioned to substantially match to a three-dimensional shape of a corresponding substantial surface portion of the crown portion of the tooth prosthesis and a second three-dimensional shape portion dimensioned to substantially match to a three-dimensional shape of a corresponding substantial surface portion of the crown portion of the at least one adjacent tooth, the first and the second three-dimensional shape portions having a geometrical relationship configured so that when the first three-dimensional shape portion is affixed to the substantial surface portion of the crown portion of the tooth prosthesis and when the second three-dimensional shape portion is affixed to the substantial surface portion of the crown portion of the at least one adjacent tooth, the custom-shaped dental splint provides temporary primary stability to the tooth prosthesis, maintaining the tooth prosthesis in a final geometrical relation to the embedding portion of the jawbone cavity, the substantial surface portion of the crown portion of the tooth prosthesis and the substantial surface portion of the at least one adjacent tooth matched to the tooth facing second three-dimensional shape portion of the custom-shaped dental splint each comprising one of the following:
- a labial surface portion and a lingual surface portion, and
- manufacturing the custom-shaped dental splint at least partially responsive to the derived digital data defining the custom-shaped splint design to form at least a substantial portion of the custom-shaped dental splint.