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US 9,060,832 B2Granted
Fabrication of dental articles using digitally-controlled reductive and digitally-controlled additive processes
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsNaimul Karim, Sumita B. Mitra
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
By capturing a highly detailed three-dimensional digital model of dentition, a suitable replacement dental article be fabricated with a combination of digitally-controlled reductive processes such as milling and digitally-controlled additive processes such as digital painting. A dental article so-manufactured can provide an aesthetically pleasing, multi-chromatic appearance that closely matches surrounding dentition.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving a digital model of a dental article for a dental patient, the dental article including a volume having a bonding surface shaped to attach to a site in human dentition and a functional surface shaped to replace a dental structure removed from the site;
- fashioning a mill blank to fabricate the dental article from a first material, the first material being a deformable, curable material;
- curing the mill blank;
- receiving visual information including color from natural dentition of the dental patient;
- fabricating an understructure for the dental article from the mill blank with a digitally-controlled reductive process, the understructure forming the structure of the dental article including a majority of the volume of the dental article;
- and
- adding at least one aesthetic layer of an enamel paint to the understructure using a digitally-controlled paint head and a mounting device collectively operable to move the dental article with three translational degrees of freedom and two rotational degrees of freedom relative to the digitally-controlled paint head, and capable of delivering a controllable color within a natural dentition color space by selecting among two or more different paints for application at a particular location and wherein the digitally-controlled paint head is controlled according to the visual information to create a corresponding surface on the understructure, thereby providing the dental article.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a digitally-controlled milling machine;
- a digitally-controlled paint head capable of delivering an enamel paint with a controllable color within a natural dentition color space by selecting among two or more different paints for application at a particular location;
- a controller coupled to the digitally-controlled milling machine and the digitally-controlled paint head, the controller programmed to receive a digital model of a dental article for a dental patient and to control operation of the digitally-controlled milling machine to fabricate a shape of the dental article from a mill blank and further to control the digitally-controlled paint head to apply material to a surface of the dental article according to visual information including color from natural dentition of the dental patient;
- a mounting device operable in combination with the digitally-controlled paint head to move the dental article in three translational degrees of freedom and two rotational degrees of freedom relative to the digitally-controlled paint head;
- and
- a tool adapted to deform and cure the mill blank prior to machining according to the digital model.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.