Workflow combines analogue and digital

Zirkonzahn's workflow has been conceived to let the techno-clinical team combine analogue and digital working steps. Each analogue working step can be transferred and reproduced 1:1 in the software and the digital design can be in turn converted back to digital at any time, allowing the user to benefit from the advantages of both working methods and to plan his/her job in a complete individual manner.

As a first step, it is necessary to gather all of the patient's specific information through the intraoral scanner (Figures 1 and 8). Through the PlaneFinder® (a component of the PlaneSystem®, developed by MDT Udo Plaster in collaboration with Zirkonzahn), the dentist can identify the patient's Natural Head Position and occlusal plane, transfer the data in the software with no loss of information and then match them with the face scans acquired via the Face Hunter 3D facial scanner (Figures 2 and 9). Furthermore, the movements of the mandible can be recorded by means of the new PlaneAnalyser II (Figures 3 and 10).

In this way, it is possible to obtain a 3D virtual reproduction of the patient's physiognomy and oral situation, which allows for a better achievable function and aesthetic design of restorations in the digital world (Figues 4 and 11). In order to have also a physical model of the patient's situation, the new CAD/CAM Model Maker software module is available to the dental technician. Once the model of the initial situation made through the Model Maker software module has been milled (Figures 5 and 12), the workflow allows the user to check the virtual data for correctness in the physical world using the resin block JawPositioner. Indeed, in the JawPositioner, it is possible to mill quickly a positioning pattern for the mandibular model, which is then fixed into the PS1 physical articulator using the PlanePositioner® (Figures 6 and 13), a positioning platform that can be tilted according to the reference planes previously registered with the PlaneSystem.

In the PS1 physical articulator it is now possible to perform checks on the inclination of the jaw, for the subsequent design and milling of the restoration (Figures 7 and 14). Any possible change implemented during the check phase can be immediately digitalised and transferred back to the virtual situation through one of the Zirkonzahn's scanners.