An Approach to Dental CAD/CAM (Part 1) -Measurement of Coronal Figure-

Abstract

Studies were undertaken to apply a CAD/CAM system to dentistry. The system was designed to make prosthetic appliances automatically in place of routine casting and moulding techniques. Three-dimensional (3D) measurement of coronal figures is necessary for CAD and CAM. We examined 2 types of 3D measuring methods. One was the slice cutting method in which sectional data were obtained from 4 times large plaster model. The other was the laser beam measuring method in which the 3D position is calculated from the change of reflected beam on CCD. The first method required much time to measure and much effort to rearrange the data. The second method time-saving automatic measuring method, which appears suitable for our dental CAD/CAM system.