The present invention relates to a blank that facilitates the rapid and economical production of dental prosthetic components. Dental prosthetic components, nonmally made from ceramic or metallic materials, are used to functionally substitute a part of a patient's dentition. There are three major components used in a complete prosthetic restoration, a substitute for the tooth's root (called a fixture), a substitute for a tooth's internal structure (called an abutment), and a cosmetic substitute, which replaces the tooth's appearance. Some patient's may need only cosmetic substitutes while others need a full replacement.
Normally, when a patient needs a prosthetic replacement, several surgical and laboratory steps must be completed before the actual replacement is ready to be installed. These steps range from installing anchors into the patient's bones to fabricating the prosthetic replacement itself. One thing that must be understood is that regardless of the kind of treatment the patient is undergoing, time is the crucial element. The longer it takes to properly treat a medical condition, the further the scenario deteriorates, thus the bigger the problem that needs resolving. Recent developments ill the art have allowed for cosmetic substitutes (namely crowns, bridges, or inlays) to be manufactured by CAD/CAM devices, directly in the dentist's office (sometimes referred to as chair-side systems), thus shortening the time between a patient's admittance to his release. However helpful, cosmetic replacements are seldom used alone, and treatments that require other prosthetic components must still endure the delays involved in fabricating the remaining components. The main reason current chair-side CAD/CAM systems cannot manufacture abutments or fixtures is the high degree of precision required to manufacture the connecting elements, which join prosthetic components together ensuring their proper alignment and securing them form rotating once installed. Since most chair-side systems cannot achieve said high degree of precision during milling, these machines cannot produce abutments or fixtures using their current blanks. The present invention pre-integrates the connecting element into the design of the blank that will be milled, thus helping to further reduce the time needed to treat a patient, once it allows for the remaining dental prosthetic components to be manufactured inside the dental office, often using the same CAD/CAM equipment already applied in making the cosmetic parts.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds