Method for manufacturing dental implant components

Inventors

Powell, Theodore M. • Amber, John T. • Berckmans, III, Bruce • Suttin, Zachary B.

Assignees

Biomet 3I LLC

Abstract

A method for making a rapid prototype of a patient's mouth to be used in the design and fabrication of a dental prosthesis. The method takes an impression of a mouth including a first installation site having a dental implant installed in the first installation site and a gingival healing abutment having at least one informational marker attached to the dental implant. A stone model is prepared based on the impression, including teeth models and model markers indicative of the at least one informational marker. The model is scanned. Scan data is generated from the scanning. The scan data is transferred to a CAD program. A three-dimensional model of the installation site is created in the CAD program. The at least one informational marker is determined to gather information for manufacturing the rapid prototype. Rapid prototype dimensional information is developed. The rapid prototype dimensional information is transferred to a rapid prototyping machine which fabricate a rapid prototype of the patient's dentition as well as a dental implant analog position.

Core Innovation

The patent addresses making a physical model of at least a portion of a patient's mouth having a dental implant installed therein, where the physical model is used in developing a prosthetic tooth to be coupled to the dental implant. It receives scan data including information about a location of the dental implant installed in the patient's mouth and develops a virtual three-dimensional model of at least a portion of the patient's mouth from the scan data. From this virtual three-dimensional model, the patent develops a first data set to be used in fabricating the physical model and a second data set to be used in developing a custom dental abutment.

The patent fabricates, by use of the first data set and the second data set, a physical model and a custom dental abutment positioned in the physical model so that the location corresponds to the location of the dental implant installed in the patient's mouth. In one approach, the custom dental abutment is integral with the physical model. In another approach, the physical model includes a blind hole positioned at a location corresponding to the dental implant location, and a custom dental abutment is developed for coupling a prosthetic tooth via the blind hole.

The patent further includes physical-model structures to correspond to the installed dental implant. In one approach, the physical model includes an implant analog structure positioned at a location corresponding to the location of the dental implant and having features corresponding to the installed dental implant. The disclosure also addresses forming the model with an implant analog structure as an attached implant analog and includes structural features such as an implant analog receptacle and a receptacle leading to the implant analog structure, with portions optionally defined by a compliant soft tissue element.

Claims Coverage

The partial set includes three independent claims describing methods that use scan-derived virtual three-dimensional modeling to generate fabrication datasets for a physical mouth model and a coupling element for a prosthetic tooth. Across the independent claims, there are three main inventive feature themes.

Across the independent claims, the coverage centers on fabricating a patient-mouth physical model using a virtual three-dimensional model generated from scan data, and placing an implant-related coupling structure within the physical model. Depending on the claim, this coupling structure is a custom dental abutment integral with the physical model, a blind-hole feature for coupling a custom dental abutment, or an implant analog structure including corresponding features.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications