Semi-automatic design of tooth crown using a 3-D dental CAD system, Vocs-1B

Previous surface model-based dental CAD systems are not necessarily suitable to metamorphosis of curved surfaces like tooth crown. To alleviate such disharmony, the authors have been developing a CAD system, Vocs1B, with a wax-up-like operationality. This paper then described two different metamorphosis operators capable of semi-automating the adjustment of contact with neighboring teeth and the positional shift of the cusps. Experiments designing the lower first molar demonstrated that both operations were completed successfully, without any additional adjustment. Consequently, Voes-1B was verified to be effective for semi-automating the CAD.