The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a dental component, in particular a dental prosthesis or a partial dental prosthesis, by means of a dental furnace, comprising the following steps: (i) additively manufacturing, in particular by means of 3D printing, a model of the dental component from a model material on the basis of a virtual 3D model of the dental component; (ii) embedding the model in an investment material; (iii) removing the model from the investment material, in particular by heating or burning out, to obtain a negative mold of the model; (iv) inserting a raw material required for manufacturing the dental component into the negative mold; (v) producing the dental component in the negative mold; and (vi) removing the negative mold.

Glass ceramics having SiO.sub.2 as main crystal phase and precursors thereof are described which are characterized by very good mechanical and optical properties and in particular can be used as restoration material in dentistry.

The invention relates to a method for the preparation of a blank from a ceramic material, wherein at least two layers of ceramic material of different compositions are filled into a die layer-by-layer and after filling of the layers they are then pressed and sintered, wherein after filling of a first layer this is structured on its surface in such a way that the first layer, viewed across its surface, differs in its height from region to region, and then a layer with a composition that differs from the first layer is filled as a second layer into the mold.

The invention relates to a process for fabricating complex mechanical shapes from metal or ceramic, and in particular to fabricating complex mechanical shapes using a pressure-assisted sintering technique to address problems relating to variations in specimen thickness and tooling, or densification gradients, by 3-D printing of a sacrificial, self-destructing powder mold is created using e.g. alumina and swellable binders such as polysaccharides. The binder-free sintering powder that forms the manufactured item is injected into the mold, and high pressure is applied. The powder assembly can then be sintered by any pressure assisted technique to full densification and the self-destructing mold allows the release of the fully densified complex manufactured item.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a dental component, in particular a dental prosthesis or a partial dental prosthesis, by means of a dental furnace, comprising the following steps: (i) producing a model of the dental component; (ii) embedding the model in an investment material; (iii) removing the model from the investment material, in particular by heating or burning out, to obtain a negative mold of the model;

(iv) inserting a raw material required for manufacturing the dental component into the negative mold; (v) producing the dental component in the negative mold; and (vi) deflasking the dental component in an at least partly automated manner, in particular by means of a stripping manufacturing process, on the basis of a virtual model of the dental component.

A system and method for fabricating dental crowns and bridgework includes the steps of: selecting one or more model teeth; forming a mold around the model tooth using a soft flexible material; removing the model tooth from the mold; adding wet dental restoration material to the mold and vibrating the mold; pressing framework into the wet restoration material; vibrating the mold and removing moisture; allowing the restoration material to dry and removing the molded crown or bridgework from the mold; trimming off excess restoration material and adding restoration material to the margin area as needed; baking the crown or bridgework in an oven without the mold and removing the crown or bridgework from the oven when the restoration material is at least partially cured.

Dental instrumentation for use in guiding a cutting tool to remove tooth structure from a working tooth is prepared. A digital model of cutting guide shell structure for placement around a portion of the tooth to be treated is combined with preset tool movements to be made by the cutting tool by one or more processors to define final cutting guide data corresponding to final cutting guide structure for guiding the cutting tool. A digital model of a fixation instrument configuration for fixing the dental instrumentation to an adjacent tooth to the working tooth is combined with the final cutting guide data by one or more processors to define final instrument configuration data corresponding to a final instrument configuration for releasably fixing the dental instrumentation to the adjacent tooth and for guiding the cutting tool in the removal of the tooth structure from the tooth to be treated.

A method of forming a prosthetic tooth element (104) is disclosed, the method comprising depositing a first hardenable fluid material (101) at a bottom of a cavity (111) of a female mould (110) to a first level (113) , the first material having a first translucency when hardened; depositing in the cavity (111), over the first material (101), a second hardenable fluid material (102) to a second level (114), the second material having a second translucency when hardened, the second translucency being less translucent than the first translucency; and inserting a male mould (120) into the cavity (111), the insertion of the male mould displacing at least a portion of the second material (102) within the cavity (111).

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a dental composite blank, including (a) placing a composite paste in a mold, (b) pressurizing the composite paste placed in the mold at a first pressure (P.sub.1), (c) pressurizing the composite paste placed in the mold at a second pressure (P.sub.2), and (d) curing the pressurized composite paste, in which each of steps (b) and (c) is performed once or multiple times, and the first pressure (P.sub.1) is less than or greater than the second pressure (P.sub.2). The dental composite blank and the method of manufacturing the same are effective at dispersing a non-dispersed filler and removing bubbles, thus improving mechanical properties, through repeated pressurization at different pressures before curing the composite paste.

An artificial tooth molding apparatus comprises: a calculation control unit (10) configured to calculate and convert 3D graphic data (D_g) required for a process of molding an artificial tooth into continuous tomographic data (D_1) and to output the tomographic data (D_1); an elevation means (20) configured to form the artificial tooth (T); a tank (30) containing the ceramic mixture solution (S) provided for immersion of the formation stage (22) of the elevation means (20); an irradiation means (40) configured to irradiate the formation stage (22) with ultraviolet rays; and a filter part (50) configured to filter an ultraviolet irradiation area irradiated with the ultraviolet rays.