Patent ID: 8690574

Claim:
A method of positioning an implant analog in a physical model of a patient's mouth for use in creating a custom prosthesis, the method comprising: scanning the physical model to develop scan data of the physical model, the physical model including physical informational marker models indicative of information concerning a dental implant installed in the patient's mouth; transferring the scan data to a CAD program; creating a three-dimensional virtual model of at least a portion of the physical model on the CAD program using the scan data, the three-dimensional virtual model including virtual informational markers corresponding to the physical informational marker models of the physical model; by using the virtual informational markers, determining the location of a virtual implant analog in the three-dimensional model corresponding to the location of the dental implant installed in the patient's mouth; developing implant-analog positional information based on the location of the virtual implant analog in the three-dimensional model; developing an emergence profile contour information to provide for a contour of an opening to be made in the physical model leading to the implant analog; transferring to a robot (i) the implant-analog positional information and (ii) the emergence profile contour information; by using at least one tool associated with the robot, modifying the physical model by creating the opening, the opening having an emergence profile corresponding to the emergence profile contour information; and by using the robot, fixing the implant analog within the opening of the physical model in accordance to the implant-analog positional information.