Computer-assisted design and manufacture of posterior full crowns.

Objective: To build an experimental system for the computer-assisted design (CAD) of full crowns and to obtain data for computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM) of full crowns.

Materials And Methods: Three steps are involved in building the system: measuring the prepared tooth, the adjacent mesial and distal teeth, and the opposing teeth by means of digital speckle correlation; reconstructing the shape of the measured teeth; and developing CAD for full crowns. The standard shape of the corresponding tooth was modified to fit the defective tooth on the basis of buccolingual and occlusal-gingival distance as well as the occlusal relationship of the defective tooth.

Results: CAD for full crowns was developed and was obtained for CAM of posterior full crowns.

Conclusions: The CAD method for full crowns is convenient and economical and can be used for anterior and posterior crown design, copying, and veneer.