Objective
The present article describes the digital workflow protocol for additive manufacturing (AM) of a clear silicone index to be used for an injected provisional restoration fabrication.
Clinical considerations
The incorporation of CAD software and AM technologies have allowed the integration of a new way to fabricate conventional diagnostic wax‐ups and silicone indexes for preparing diagnostic mock ups, direct composite restorations, or provisional restorations. Although the conventional concept remains, the protocol differs.
Conclusions
This workflow provides a more efficient and accurate procedure with the reduction of time and cost compared to conventional technique.
Clinical Significance
The digital workflow protocol described for AM of a clear silicone index to be used for an injected provisional restoration fabrication is time and cost efficient compared to conventional procedures.
Objective
To review the techniques and available 2D and 3D computer‐aided design (CAD) software programs to perform a diagnostic waxing for restorative procedures when cone beam computed tomography is not indicated.
Overview
An electronic review was performed in Medline, Embase, and Scopus search engines. A manual search was also conducted. The articles evaluating methods to obtain a 2D or 3D patient's representation for restorative dental procedures were included. A total of 33 articles were included for full text review. CAD programs provide the capability to integrate facial features from 2D photographs or 3D facial scans and facilitate facially driven digital diagnostic waxing procedures. Diagnostic and design tools varied among the programs, and multiple technique descriptions were found. However, the literature evaluating the accuracy of virtual patients and the perception variations between the 2D and 3D dimensional representations is limited.
Conclusions
The integration of digital technologies into treatment planning procedures introduce variation into the conventional interfaces; however, the concepts remain the same. Further studies are needed to evaluate the accuracy of the virtual representations and the influence of the type of dimensional representation on the esthetic perceptions among dental professionals.
Clinical significance
The 2D and 3D CAD software programs facilitate the integration of facial features into digital diagnostic waxing procedures; however, the esthetic perception of the patient's virtual representation might vary among the different systems.
The present article describes the resin infiltration technique to address white spots lesions presented on anterior and premolar teeth of a young patient after orthodontic treatment and the digital workflow for planning a diastema closure on the maxillary anterior teeth using facial photographs, an intraoral scanner, a facially driven diagnostic waxing using a dental computer‐aided design (CAD) software, and 3‐piece additive manufactured (AM) clear silicone indices. The virtual design of the silicone indices was completed using an open‐source CAD software and included a flexible clear buccal piece, flexible clear lingual piece, and rigid clear custom tray. The unique 3‐piece index design allows a horizontal path of insertion, controlled uniform thickness of the indices, flexible and rigid material properties combination, accurate translation of the diagnostic waxing into the patient´s mouth, and digital storage of the designs.
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