Integration for local manufacturing of dental products

1 . A method for manufacturing a dental component in a dental clinic or laboratory, the method comprising:

setting up one or more manufacturing machines for usage by a clinical computer over a computer network wherein the one or more manufacturing machines and the clinical computer are in the dental clinic or laboratory;

designing, in a design software application on the clinical computer, the dental component to be manufactured wherein the designing is performed using a machine learning algorithm and wherein the dental component is a crown, inlay, onlay, veneer, bridge, removable partial denture, full denture, occlusal splint or surgical guide;

suggesting, by the design software application, a manufacturing machine for manufacturing the dental component based on one or more of the following criteria: the design of the dental component, the materials available for use in each of the one or more manufacturing machines, or the precision of the one or more manufacturing machines;

receiving, on the clinical computer, a status message from each of the one or more manufacturing machines indicating a status of the manufacturing machine;

responsive to the status message from each of the one or more manufacturing machines, selecting a manufacturing machine from the one of the one or more manufacturing machines for manufacturing the dental component; and

sending the designed dental component from the clinical computer to the selected manufacturing machine over the computer network.

2 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of manufacturing the designed dental component on the selected manufacturing machine.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein setting up the one or more manufacturing machines comprises:

using a two layer communication protocol to connect the clinical computer to the one or more manufacturing machines, wherein the communication protocol comprises:

an introductory handshake layer which determines major versions of the two layer communication protocol supported by a server; and

a version-specific layer which allows detailed communication between the two layer communication protocol and the one or more manufacturing machines.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the two layer communication protocol comprises a gRPC framework.

5 . A system for manufacturing a dental component in a dental clinic or laboratory, the system comprising:

one or more manufacturing machines configured to manufacture the dental component; and

a clinical computing device communicatively coupled to the one or more manufacturing machines over a computer network wherein the one or more manufacturing machines and the clinical computing device are in the dental clinic or laboratory, wherein the clinical computing device is configured to:

design, in a design software application on the clinical computer, the dental component to be manufactured wherein the designing is performed using a machine learning algorithm and wherein the dental component is a crown, inlay, onlay, veneer, bridge, removable partial denture, full denture, occlusal splint or surgical guide;

suggest, by the design software application, a manufacturing machine for manufacturing the dental component based on one or more of the following criteria: the design of the dental component, the materials available for use in each of the one or more manufacturing machines, or the precision of the one or more manufacturing machines;

receive a status message from each of the one or more manufacturing machines indicative of a status of the one or more manufacturing machines;

receive a selection of a manufacturing machine for a dental design completed via an application of the clinical computing device;

display, in the application, an indication of the status messages;

send, from the application, instructions to the selected manufacturing machine indicative of the dental design;

receive a manufacturing status message indicative of the progress of the manufacturing of the dental component; and

display, in the application, an indication of the manufacturing status message.

6 . The system according to claim 5 , wherein the one or more manufacturing machines is a dental milling machine or a 3D-printer suitable for printing the dental component.

7 . A method of manufacturing a dental component in a dental clinic, the method comprising:

scanning a patient's oral cavity using an intra-oral scanner;

sending the intra-oral scan data to from the intra-oral scanner to a clinical computing device, the intra-oral scanner communicatively coupled to the clinical computing device over a computer network;

creating a digital three-dimensional representation of the patient's teeth using at least the intra-oral scan data;

setting up one or more manufacturing machines for usage by a clinical computer over the computer network, wherein the one or more manufacturing machines and the clinical computing device are in the dental clinic;

designing, in a design software application on the clinical computer, the dental component to be manufactured, wherein the designing is performed using a machine learning algorithm and wherein the dental component is a crown, inlay, onlay, veneer, bridge, removable partial denture, full denture, occlusal splint or surgical guide;

receiving, on the clinical computer, a status message from the one or more manufacturing machines indicating a status of the one or more manufacturing machines;

responsive to the status message, selecting a manufacturing machine for manufacturing the dental component based on one or more of the following criteria: the design of the dental component, the materials available for use in each of the one or more manufacturing machines, or the precision of the one or more manufacturing machines;

sending the designed dental component from the clinical computer to the selected manufacturing machine over the computer network; and

manufacturing the designed dental component on the selected manufacturing machine.