Interproximal Distance Analysis of Stereolithographic Casts Made by CAD-CAM Technology: An in Vitro Study

Statement of problem The accuracy of interproximal distances of the definitive casts made by computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) technology is not yet known. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the interproximal distances of stereolithographic casts made by CAD-CAM technology with those of stone casts made by the conventional method. Material and methods Dentoform teeth were prepared for a single ceramic crown on the maxillary left central incisor, a 3-unit fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) on the second premolar for a metal-ceramic crown, and a maxillary right first molar for a metal crown. Twenty digital intraoral impressions were made on the dentoform with an intraoral digital impression scanner. The digital impression files were used to fabricate 20 sets of stereolithographic casts, 10 definitive casts for the single ceramic crown, and 10 definitive casts for the FDP. Furthermore, 20 stone casts were made by the conventional method using polyvinyl siloxane impression material with a custom tray. Each definitive cast for stereolithographic cast and stone cast consisted of removable die-sectioned casts (DC) and nonsectioned solid casts (SC). Measurements of interproximal distance of each cast were made using CAD software to provide mean ±standard deviation (SD) values. Data were first analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), using different methods of cast fabrication (stone and stereolithography) as one within subject factor and different cast types (DC and SC) as another within subject factor. Post hoc analyses were performed to investigate the differences between stone and stereolithographic casts depending upon the results from the repeated measures ANOVA (α=.05). Results Analysis of interproximal distances showed the mean ±SD value of the single ceramic crown group was 31.2 ±24.5 μm for stone casts and 261.0 ±116.1 μm for stereolithographic casts, whereas the mean ±SD value for the FDP group was 46.0 ±35.0 μm for stone casts and 292.8 ±216.6 μm for stereolithographic casts. For both the single ceramic crown and the FDP groups, there were significant differences in interproximal distances between stereolithographic casts and stone casts (P\u3c.001). In addition, the comparisons of DC with SC of stone and stereolithographic casts for the single ceramic crown and FDP groups demonstrated there was statistically significant differences among interproximal distances between DC stereolithographic casts and SC stereolithographic casts only for the FDP group (P\u3c.001). Conclusions For both the single ceramic crown and the FDP groups, the stereolithographic cast group showed significantly larger interproximal distances than the stone cast group. In terms of the comparison between DC and SC, DC stereolithographic casts for the FDP group only showed significantly larger interproximal values than those of the SC stereolithographic casts for the FDP group

Interproximal Distance Analysis of Stereolithographic Casts Made by CAD-CAM Technology: An in Vitro Study

Statement of problem The accuracy of interproximal distances of the definitive casts made by computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) technology is not yet known. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the interproximal distances of stereolithographic casts made by CAD-CAM technology with those of stone casts made by the conventional method. Material and methods Dentoform teeth were prepared for a single ceramic crown on the maxillary left central incisor, a 3-unit fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) on the second premolar for a metal-ceramic crown, and a maxillary right first molar for a metal crown. Twenty digital intraoral impressions were made on the dentoform with an intraoral digital impression scanner. The digital impression files were used to fabricate 20 sets of stereolithographic casts, 10 definitive casts for the single ceramic crown, and 10 definitive casts for the FDP. Furthermore, 20 stone casts were made by the conventional method using polyvinyl siloxane impression material with a custom tray. Each definitive cast for stereolithographic cast and stone cast consisted of removable die-sectioned casts (DC) and nonsectioned solid casts (SC). Measurements of interproximal distance of each cast were made using CAD software to provide mean ±standard deviation (SD) values. Data were first analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), using different methods of cast fabrication (stone and stereolithography) as one within subject factor and different cast types (DC and SC) as another within subject factor. Post hoc analyses were performed to investigate the differences between stone and stereolithographic casts depending upon the results from the repeated measures ANOVA (α=.05). Results Analysis of interproximal distances showed the mean ±SD value of the single ceramic crown group was 31.2 ±24.5 μm for stone casts and 261.0 ±116.1 μm for stereolithographic casts, whereas the mean ±SD value for the FDP group was 46.0 ±35.0 μm for stone casts and 292.8 ±216.6 μm for stereolithographic casts. For both the single ceramic crown and the FDP groups, there were significant differences in interproximal distances between stereolithographic casts and stone casts (P\u3c.001). In addition, the comparisons of DC with SC of stone and stereolithographic casts for the single ceramic crown and FDP groups demonstrated there was statistically significant differences among interproximal distances between DC stereolithographic casts and SC stereolithographic casts only for the FDP group (P\u3c.001). Conclusions For both the single ceramic crown and the FDP groups, the stereolithographic cast group showed significantly larger interproximal distances than the stone cast group. In terms of the comparison between DC and SC, DC stereolithographic casts for the FDP group only showed significantly larger interproximal values than those of the SC stereolithographic casts for the FDP group

Chemoinformatics Research at the University of Sheffield: A History and Citation Analysis

This paper reviews the work of the Chemoinformatics Research Group in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield, focusing particularly on the work carried out in the period 1985-2002. Four major research areas are discussed, these involving the development of methods for: substructure searching in databases of three-dimensional structures, including both rigid and flexible molecules; the representation and searching of the Markush structures that occur in chemical patents; similarity searching in databases of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures; and compound selection and the design of combinatorial libraries. An analysis of citations to 321 publications from the Group shows that it attracted a total of 3725 residual citations during the period 1980-2002. These citations appeared in 411 different journals, and involved 910 different citing organizations from 54 different countries, thus demonstrating the widespread impact of the Group's work

Transferring Unit Cell Based Tissue Scaffold Design to Solid Freeform Fabrication

Designing for the freeform fabrication of heterogeneous tissue scaffold is always a challenge in Computer Aided Tissue Engineering. The difficulties stem from two major sources: 1) limitations in current CAD systems to assembly unit cells as building blocks to form complex tissue scaffolds, and 2) the inability to generate tool paths for freeform fabrication of unit cell assemblies. To overcome these difficulties, we have developed an abstract model based on skeletal representation and associated computational methods to assemble unit cells into an optimized structure. Additionally we have developed a process planning technique based on internal architecture pattern of unit cells to generate tool paths for freeform fabrication of tissue scaffold. By modifying our optimization process, we are able to transfer an optimized design to our fabrication system via our process planning technique.Mechanical Engineerin

Constructing IGA-suitable planar parameterization from complex CAD boundary by domain partition and global/local optimization

In this paper, we propose a general framework for constructing IGA-suitable planar B-spline parameterizations from given complex CAD boundaries consisting of a set of B-spline curves. Instead of forming the computational domain by a simple boundary, planar domains with high genus and more complex boundary curves are considered. Firstly, some pre-processing operations including B\'ezier extraction and subdivision are performed on each boundary curve in order to generate a high-quality planar parameterization; then a robust planar domain partition framework is proposed to construct high-quality patch-meshing results with few singularities from the discrete boundary formed by connecting the end points of the resulting boundary segments. After the topology information generation of quadrilateral decomposition, the optimal placement of interior B\'ezier curves corresponding to the interior edges of the quadrangulation is constructed by a global optimization method to achieve a patch-partition with high quality. Finally, after the imposition of C1=G1-continuity constraints on the interface of neighboring B\'ezier patches with respect to each quad in the quadrangulation, the high-quality B\'ezier patch parameterization is obtained by a C1-constrained local optimization method to achieve uniform and orthogonal iso-parametric structures while keeping the continuity conditions between patches. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated by several examples which are compared to results obtained by the skeleton-based parameterization approach