Patent ID: 7988449

Claim:
A method of developing a custom abutment, comprising: attaching an attachment member to a dental implant in a mouth of a patient, the attachment member being a unitary member and including a top surface comprising at least one feature indicative of first and second characteristics of the dental implant, the attachment member being configured to mate with only the dental implant when the attachment member is attached to the dental implant such that the top surface of the attachment member is free to directly contact impression material; taking an impression of an area of the mouth of the patient, the impression including teeth impressions and a structure impression having physical informational marker impressions that correspond to the at least one feature of the attachment member; scanning at least a part of the impression of the area of the mouth to determine, by using the structure impression, the first and second characteristics of the dental implant to gather information for manufacturing the custom abutment; and developing the custom abutment based on the information from the first and second characteristics of the dental implant.