Method of designing and producing dental implant based restorations

Abstract

A method for designing and manufacturing implant based restorations is disclosed. The method involves the use of Scannable Temporary Anatomic References to provide very reliable, fixed points of reference to enable a technician to relate and superimpose the dental implant position to a pre-planned restoration with a very high degree of accuracy throughout the entire workflow. The method can be carried out by placing Scannable Temporary Anatomic References in a jaw, on teeth, and/or in implants, collecting images by scanning a mouth, relating those images to images of a appearance of desired dental implant based restoration, placing an implant in the jaw, scanning the scannable temporary anatomic references to create a new set of images, relating the images, and producing a restoration based on the images.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method for designing and producing a dental implant based restoration, said method comprising the steps of
 preparing a mock up of the restoration,   providing at least three skeletal devices comprising a threaded post and a scannable head with multiple scanning surfaces,   threadably engaging a jaw with the threaded posts of the at least three skeletal devices,   scanning the mouth to provide a first data set relating the existing teeth to the at least three skeletal devices,   placing at least one implant in the jaw,   scanning the mouth to provide second data set relating the at least one implant to the at least three skeletal devices,   relating a first image generated from the first data set to an image of the mock up,   relating a second image generated from the first data set to an image generated from the second dataset, and   producing a restoration based on the images.   
     
     
         2 . The method claimed in  claim 1  wherein, after the first data set is collected, at least one tooth is extracted. 
     
     
         3 . The method claimed in  claim 1  wherein the at least one implant includes a scan body.