Patent ID: 8882508

Claim:
A method of developing a custom-abutment for attachment to a dental implant in a mouth of a patient, comprising: determining a type of the dental implant in the mouth of the patient; selecting a scanning member from a set of scanning members based on the determined type of the dental implant, each of the scanning members in the set having a head portion coupled to a body portion, the head portions being identical for each of the scanning members in the set, the body portions being different for each of the scanning members in the set, the body portions each having a non-rotational feature that is configured to be coupled with a different type of non-rotational dental implant feature, the head portion having (i) a top surface indicative of a first characteristic of the dental implant, (ii) a first side surface that is substantially flat and indicative of a second characteristic of the dental implant, the first side surface of the head portion being parallel with at least one side surface of the non-rotational feature of the body portion, and (iii) a second side surface that is curved for aiding in distinguishing the second side surface from the first side surface, the second side surface opposing the first side surface; attaching the selected one of the scanning members to the dental implant in the mouth of the patient; determining, via scanning the head portion of the attached scanning member, the first characteristic and the second characteristic of the dental implant to gather information for manufacturing the custom-abutment; and developing the custom abutment based on the information from the first characteristic and the second characteristic of the attached scanning member.