Collision Free Design of Dental Prosthesis

This research project presents the construction of a Dental Virtual Articulator that permits the design of collision-free geometry on dental prostheses. Thanks to this articulator kinematic analysis can be taken into account in the design of dental prostheses. This is an improvement of the utmost importance in this field. Several steps have been followed in the development of this virtual articulator. First, in order to obtain a digitalized data of each individual patient, plaster models of his/her upper and lower parts of the jaw were scanned. Afterwards, depending on the required accuracy or on the patient’s setting data available in each case, the type of articulator was selected. Then, using a CAD system, the missing teeth were statically modelled. Also, the opening/closing movements and the lateral occlusion were simulated with the CAD system in order to analyze possible occlusal collisions and modify the design accordingly. Finally, this paper discusses the still existing shortcomings of virtual articulator simulation and provides a detailed research prospect as well. The main practical implications of this paper are, on the one hand, the improvement in dental CAD/CAM systems by adding the kinematic analysis, and on the other, since each of them has an individual pattern of movement, the analysis of the simulations of different articulators.