Patent · US Expired

Method for automatically creating a denture using laser altimetry to create a digital 3-D oral cavity model and using a digital internet connection to a rapid stereolithographic modeling machine

US7153135B1 · kind B1 · utility

127Cited by
28References
7Claims
0Family size

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 14, 2000
Grant dateDec 26, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 27, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC A)Human Necessities
  • CPC primaryA61C13/0013
  • WIPO fieldMedical technology
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method is presented for rapidly making and delivering directly to a consumer a full upper and/or lower denture on the basis of contemporaneous digital image information laser scanned from the person's oral cavity after all respective upper and/or lower teeth have been removed, the delivery of the denture occurring substantially contemporaneously with the creation of the contemporaneous digital image information and optionally including and based on archived digital image information laser scanned from the person's oral cavity before all respective upper and/or lower teeth have been removed and digitally stored. According to which this contemporaneous digital image information and archival digital image information of the oral cavity is converted, by means of what is called the rapid prototyping technique and thus with a processing step (20) and a combination of an optional laser scanning step (18) solely for archiving the oral cavity when upper and/or lower teeth are present and a repetition of the laser scanning step (18) at a subsequent time when upper and/or lower teeth have been removed, a pre-selected block of plastic is used in a processing step (26) at a remote rapid model…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.