Evaluation of dental restorations with occlusal surfaces - A new approach -

Mainly, the occlusal fit of prosthodontic restorations is evaluated qualitatively by visual control of color-marked contact points. A large loss of data and information is immanent in conventional methods for the exploration of internal, marginal and occlusal fit of fixed restorations. Aim of this study was to develop a procedure for the three-dimensional analysis of internal and occlusal precision of fit. A test model was developed by reverse engineering. Every single step in the manufacturing of fixed prosthodontic restorations concerning the influence on the achievable precision has to be evaluated. The test model is based on a real and an identical virtual model of upper and lower teeth in static occlusion. The interpenetration of upper and lower tooth surfaces may be evaluated qualitatively analogous to the analysis of occlusal contacts in conventional methods. On top of this, a quantitative evaluation of the size of the contacts is possible. By multi-step optimization, manufacturing a real model in static occlusion, which is identical to a virtual model is considered to be possible within a processing error of Keywords: CAD/CAM, digitizing, restoration, occlusion, method