A Novel Flexible System for Denture Design and Manufacture

It has been long recognized that high cost of denture design and manufacture are the main obstacles standing in the way of dental restoration treatment. It is expected to develop a cost-efficient method and a relatively intelligent system to satisfy the growing requirements from ordinary people who are not capable of affording high expenditures aroused by traditional approaches or even some modern methods. This study proposes a novel flexible system for denture design and manufacture, which could eliminate or at least alleviate some shortcomings of existing methods. The system is an integration of three essential engineering techniques. The first one is the laser scanning technique for laser-digitizing the contours of dental frame, the second one is reverse engineering (RE) technique to reconstruct 3D model of teeth, the third one is the adoption of NC technique to realize the fabrication of tailor-made dentures. This paper mainly focuses on the specification of the foresaid system instead of briefing theoretical analysis of each part, and details its implementation in clinical use in the meantime. The overall performance of this system is compatible with most of the commercial available dental CAD/CAM systems with a more flexible framework, relative low cost and reduced treatment cycle. This system will be very useful if its popularity could be further promoted.