COATING COMPOSITIONS HAVING PARTICLES WITH DIFFERING REFRACTIVE INDICES FOR USE IN INTRAORAL SCANNING METHODS
Disclosed herein are aqueous dental coating compositions and methods for enhancing contrast of intraoral surfaces for 3-dimensional digital scanning. The compositions include: an aqueous solvent system; a water soluble polymer present at no greater than 5 wt. %, based on the total weight of the aqueous dental coating composition; a plurality of first particles having a first index of refraction, and a plurality of second particles having a second index of refraction different than the first index of refraction, wherein the first particles and the second particles are substantially non-absorptive in the visible range, and wherein the aqueous dental coating composition is a dispersion or a dispersion of the first particles and second particles in the aqueous solvent system can be formed by shaking the composition for 30 seconds.
1 . An aqueous dental coating composition comprising:
an aqueous solvent system;
a water soluble polymer present at no greater than 5 wt. %, based on the total weight of the aqueous dental coating composition;
a plurality of first particles having a first index of refraction; and
a plurality of second particles having a second index of refraction different than the first index of refraction,
wherein the first particles and the second particles are substantially non-absorptive in the visible range, and
wherein the aqueous dental coating composition is a dispersion or a dispersion of the first particles and second particles in the aqueous solvent system can be formed by shaking the composition for 30 seconds.
2 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the first particles and the second particles are tooth-colored.
3 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the second index of refraction differs from the first index of refraction by at least 0.05.
4 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the second index of refraction differs from the first index of refraction by at least 0.1.
5 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the second index of refraction differs from the first index of refraction by at least 0.2.
6 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solvent system comprises water, or water and ethanol.
7 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 6 , wherein the aqueous solvent system comprises 0 to 55 wt. % ethanol, based on the total weight of water and ethanol.
8 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous dental coating composition comprises 0.1 to 5 wt. % of the water soluble polymer, based on the total weight of the aqueous dental coating composition.
9 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the water soluble polymer is selected from the group consisting of modified cellulose, polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyacrylic acid, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide copolymers (PEO-PPO), polyethylene oxide-vinyl acetate copolymers (PEO-PVAc), polyvinyl pyrrolidinone (PVP), and combinations thereof.
10 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of first particles have an average size of 0.01 to 10 microns.
11 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of first particles comprise inorganic particles.
12 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of first particles comprise ZrO 2 particles.
13 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous dental coating composition comprises 5 to 30 wt. % of the first particles, based on the total weight of the aqueous dental coating composition.
14 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of second particles have an average size of 0.01 to 10 microns.
15 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the second particles comprise inorganic particles.
16 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the second particles comprise CaCO 3 particles.
17 . The aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous dental coating composition comprises 5 to 30 wt. % of the second particles, based on the total weight of the aqueous dental coating composition.
18 . A method of intraoral scanning comprising:
applying an aqueous dental coating composition of claim 1 , to an intraoral surface or model thereof to form a coating on the surface; and
scanning the coated surface to form a three dimensional representation of the intraoral surface.
19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising drying the applied aqueous dental coating composition to form the coating.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the dried coating has an average thickness of at most 10 microns.
21 . (canceled)