Method and apparatus for determining color, in particular of a dental prosthesis
First Claim
1. A method for determining a color for a dental prosthesis by referencing the color of an adjacent tooth in the mouth of a patient, comprising the steps of:
- inserting instrument means hving at least one optical fiber in the mouth of the patient;
illuminating through the instrument means at least one tooth adjacent to an area of emplacement for a dental prosthesis;
picking up through the instrument means color information formed by the illuminating light reflecting off the adjacent tooth;
transmitting through the optical fiber the reflected light to a spectrocolorimeter;
determining a diffuse spectral reflectance of the adjacent tooth;
calculating various colorations for the dental prothesis from the diffuse spectral reflectance, the various colorations corresponding to different types of light by which the dental prothesis may be illuminated; and
displaying a set of teeth representing the adjacent tooth and the dental prothesis with respective colorations under the different types of light.
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Abstract
The invention can be used to determine the color to be given to a dental prosthesis, for example, on the basis of color measurements performed on adjacent teeth in the mouth of the patient. An optical fiber instrument picks up light reflected from a tooth and transmits it to the inlet of a spectrocolorimeter which associated with a microprocessor in order to determine the diffuse spectral reflectance of the tooth and to calculate the tristimulus values of its apparent color under various different types of illumination. The invention is particularly suitable for determining the color of dental prostheses.
171 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method for determining a color for a dental prosthesis by referencing the color of an adjacent tooth in the mouth of a patient, comprising the steps of:
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inserting instrument means hving at least one optical fiber in the mouth of the patient; illuminating through the instrument means at least one tooth adjacent to an area of emplacement for a dental prosthesis; picking up through the instrument means color information formed by the illuminating light reflecting off the adjacent tooth; transmitting through the optical fiber the reflected light to a spectrocolorimeter; determining a diffuse spectral reflectance of the adjacent tooth; calculating various colorations for the dental prothesis from the diffuse spectral reflectance, the various colorations corresponding to different types of light by which the dental prothesis may be illuminated; and displaying a set of teeth representing the adjacent tooth and the dental prothesis with respective colorations under the different types of light. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An apparatus for determining a color for a dental prosthesis by referencing the color of at least one adjacent tooth in the mouth of a patient, said apparatus comprising:
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instrument means, suitable for insertion into the mouth of a patient, for picking up color information of a tooth adjacent an area of emplacement of a dental prothesis; optical fiber means associated with said instrument means for illuminating the adjacent tooth and for picking up reflected light from the adjacent tooth; a spectrocolorimeter having an optical fiber path connected to said optical fiber means for receiving the reflected light from said optical fiber means, said spectrocolorimeter including means for measuring and determining diffuse spectral reflectance of the adjacent tooth; calculating means associated with said spectrocolorimeter for determining, under different types of illuminations, various apparent colorations of the adjacent tooth; and a graphics display terminal for displaying the dental prothesis and the adjacent tooth as a set of teeth with respective apparent colorations, wherein the color of the dental prothesis is chosen from a plurality of displayed color test samples. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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Specification