The Effect of Proximal Teeth on the Digitizing Accuracy of the Shoulder Margin of the Crown Abutment by a Laser Digitizer Equipped in an Experimentally Developed CAD/CAM Device

Abstract

We have been developing a dental CAD/CAM system to fabricate dental restorations automatically with computer assistance. We already developed the first and second versions of a compact CAD/CAM machine that contained both a digitizer and machinery. In our system, a laser digitizer digitizes the surface of the stone model of an abutment. In previous studies the width of the abutment's shoulder appeared to affect digitizing accuracy. In this study, the effect of the proximal teeth on the accuracy of the abutments shoulder margin was investigated in detail. Since the results indicated that accuracy decreased when the distance between the abutment and the proximal tooth was less than 2mm, we need to prepare a practical countermeasure to eliminate the effect of a proximal tooth.