Patent ID: 8386061

Claim:
A method for producing customized denture prescriptions, comprising the steps of: a) placing a reference indicia on the face of a patient, the reference indicia having a predetermined dimension; b) positioning a mouth shield generally in the patient's mouth prior to the taking at least one digital photograph step, the mouth shield being dimensioned to cover at least a portion of the patient's teeth thereby creating a voided area in the digital photograph; c) taking at least one digital photograph of the patient's face; d) loading the photograph to a computer software program, wherein the program compares the predetermined dimension of the reference indicia to one or more other areas of the patient's face to identify and measure facial contours of the patient; e) creating an digital image of the digital photograph, the digital image being formatted relative to the identified and measured facial contours of the patient and the voided area: f) entering or selecting at least one of desired materials and structure for making the denture, in consultation with the patient, using the software program so that the program automatically produces a prescription for the denture based on the entered materials and/or structure; g) superimposing the entered or selected at least one of desired materials and structure for making the denture into the voided area of the digital image so that a practitioner or the patient can see the results of what the patient may look like with the selected combination; and h) transmitting the prescription to a dental laboratory for making the denture.