The present invention relates to a process for producing a ceramic article, the process comprising the steps of providing a printing sol, the printing sol comprising solvent, nano-sized particles, radiation curable monomer(s) and photoinitiator, the printing sol having a viscosity of less than 500 mPa*s at 23 C., processing the printing sol as construction material in an additive manufacturing process to obtain a 3-dim article being in a gel state, the 3-dim article having a Volume A, transferring the 3-dim article being in a gel state to a 3-dim article being in an aerogel state, heat treating the 3-dim article to obtain a sintered 3-dim ceramic article, the ceramic article having a Volume F, Volume A of the 3-dim article in a gel state being more than 500% of Volume F of the ceramic article in its sintered state. The invention also relates to a ceramic article obtainable according to such a process. The ceramic article can have the shape of a dental or orthodontic article.

A three-dimensional dental device is fabricated in a layer-by-layer approach using a support material. The support material is deposited in a liquid form on a surface, hardened by cooling or ultraviolet (UV) curing, and selectively ablated to create an area within which the desired structure of the dental device will be formed. Active dental material is deposited into this area, and the layer-by-layer process repeated until the three-dimensional dental device has been completed. Thereafter, any remaining support material is removed by water or other solvent.

A method for producing partial dental prosthesis having at least one surface for forming a chewing surface of a posterior tooth is provided. The method includes (i) providing a composite material with at least one organic binding agent and solid particles that consist of glass as filler; and (ii) applying a laser to at least some regions of a surface of the chewing surface such that the at least one organic binding agent is burnt off in laser-treated regions and the solid particles are melted and fused together to form a continuous enamel layer.

Systems and methods for laser trimming dental aligners include a model positioning system, an orientation determination system, and a laser trimming system. The model positioning system receives a physical dental model with a material thermoformed thereto. The dental model includes an orientation feature. The model positioning system moves the dental model to a position where the orientation feature is viewable by a camera. The camera captures an image of the orientation feature. The orientation determination system identifies an offset of the dental model by determining an actual orientation of the dental model based on the image of the orientation feature. The laser trimming system cuts the material from the dental model along a trim line while the fixture plate is moved about at least two axes relative to the laser trimming system.

Method for producing an artificial gingiva The invention relates to a method for producing an artificial gingiva (1), in which a 3D model (3) of the artificial gingiva (1) is already provided. A gingiva template (4) representing at least partial areas (5) of the 3D model (3) of the artificial gingiva (1) is constructed as a negative mold using the 3D model (3) of the artificial gingiva (1).

A system is disclosed for manufacturing a dental workpiece. The system may have a subtractive machine configured to manufacture a base of a dental device from a material blank, and an additive machine configured to manufacture a top of the dental device by adding material onto a surface of the base. The system may also have a controller in communication with the subtractive machine and the additive machine. The controller may be programmed to receive digital data corresponding to a mouth of a particular patient, and to control operation of the subtractive machine to customize the base based on the digital data.

The invention relates to a method for producing a denture base semi-finished product with the following steps: 1) Recording and digitalizing the oral cavity situation of a patient, wherein a digital three-dimensional oral cavity model of the patient is produced, or providing a digital three-dimensional oral cavity model of the oral cavity situation of a patient; 2) Implementing a first calculation in which a digital three-dimensional first model (A) of a denture base is calculated, wherein the oral cavity model of the oral cavity situation is used as a basis for the first calculation; 3) Conducting a second calculation, in which a digital three-dimensional second model (B) of a denture base semi-finished product is calculated from the first model (A) of the denture base, wherein volume is added at least in sections to the three-dimensional model (A) of the denture base; and 4) Producing the denture base semi-finished product with a Rapid Prototyping method, wherein with the Rapid Prototyping method, a CAM method is used and the digital three-dimensional second model (B) of the denture semi-finished product is used as the basis for the CAM method. The invention also relates to a device for implementing such a method and a denture base semi-finished product produced using such a method.

A biological tissue rootage face (30) capable of closely bonding to a biological tissue (H, S) is composed of a biocompatible material and has numerous fingertip-shaped microvilli (41). The microvilli (41) have tip diameters in the order of nanometers. An implant (1) has the biological tissue rootage face (30) on a surface (11, 24) configured to root into a biological tissue (H, S). In a method for forming the biological tissue rootage face (30), a surface of a biocompatible material is subjected to laser nonthermal processing carried out by emitting a laser beam in air, to form numerous fingertip-shaped microvilli (41). The laser beam is a laser beam of an ultrashort pulse laser.

A method of manufacturing an article, comprising taking an article formed in an initial state via an additive manufacturing process and performing a second manufacturing process to transform the article into a second state, which comprises mounting the article in a holding device, processing at least one first feature on the article, which comprises processing at least one set of mounting features on the article, re-mounting the article via the at least one set of mounting features, and then processing at least one second feature on the article.

A system and method for optimising the preparation of dental restorations is provided. The system comprises a dental restoration surface processing unit, a dental restoration assessment unit, a database comprising a treatment parameters database and a processing protocols database, a processor operationally coupled to said dental restoration surface processing unit and a protocol selector. The method treats a dental restoration surface using the system and according to one or more selected processing protocol.