US Patent 8255071 Method and system for forming a dental prosthesis

A system and method for use in constructing a prosthesis/complete restoration that obtains a digital dentition model, such as a 3D geometric surface model or a 3D volumetric image model, processes the digital dentition model to form a virtual model, forms a virtual mold including a digital prosthesis and/or complete restoration, and uses the virtual model to construct the prosthesis/complete restoration. Processing circuitry, such as a programmed server, can be used to obtain the digital dentition model and form the virtual mold. A rapid manufacturing device can be used to construct the prosthesis/complete restoration.