Patent ID: 7901209

Claim:
A method of automatically fabricating a dental superstructure to be attached to an implant using a digital model description of a shape of the dental superstructure, the dental superstructure including first and second elements, the method comprising: recording a real clinical situation or a shaped clinical situation of the implant as digital data; analyzing the recorded situation and determining an implant axis and an insertion axis; computing an optimum shape of the dental superstructure based at least in part on the determined implant axis; generating digital data representing the optimum shape of the dental superstructure; automatically separating the digital data representing the optimum shape of the dental superstructure into first digital data representing a shape of the first element to be connected to the implant and second digital data representing a shape of the second element to be connected to the first element, the shape of the first element being optimized, at least in part, based on a tilt angle between the determined implant axis and the determined insertion axis; and fabricating the first and second elements from one or more blanks, based on the first digital data and the second digital data, using machining equipment.