Inventors:
Enrique A. Monroy - Hialeah FL
Assignee:
Dentsply Research & Development Corp. - Milford DE
International Classification:
A61C 1310
Abstract:
A technique by which a denture formed from light-curable plastic material, and including individually positioned artificial teeth, is produced by the use of a custom, substantially U-shaped, matrix formed from an elongated shape of light-curable plastic material which is impressed into and is releasably affixed to the incisal and occlusal surfaces of the teeth when mounted in set-up wax on a model of a patient's gum. The matrix, while so affixed to the teeth, is light-cured to permit the connected matrix and teeth to be separated from the wax while the teeth are maintained by the matrix in accurate desired interrelation while the teeth are being formed into a final denture by sculpturing light-curable denture material between the denture base and teeth to interconnect the exposed ridge-lap ends of the teeth upon the matrix to the denture material while the matrix maintains the teeth in desired adjacent relationship for engagement by and affixation to the denture material as sculptured into the final denture shape, which is then light-cured and the matrix is separated from the incisal and occlusal surfaces of the teeth on the completed denture.