Patent 10111734 was granted and assigned to Nobel Biocare on October, 2018 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention describes a dental kit-of-parts including an implant abutment, a dental restoration and a screw. The head of the screw is provided in a recess formed in the kit-of-parts, with the screw shaft extending through a hole in the implant abutment. A channel in the dental restoration allows access to the screw head by a tool, wherein the diameter of the channel is smaller than the diameter of the screw head. The dental kit-of parts can be manufactured using rapid prototyping such that the captive screw is formed within the combination of the implant abutment and the dental restoration or through conventional means, with the dental abutment and the dental restoration being ex-situ connected to enclose the screw.