For the manufacture of a denture, or artifical teeth, the prepared tooth stump is reproduced as a working model, and the substitute piece, suitably conformed to the working model, is shaped by hand. In order to facilitate the dentist's work, and at the same time attain great accuracy, it is provided that reproduction of the tooth stump is accomplished electro-optically in such a manner that surface-information signals corresponding to the tooth stump are generated and are converted in an electronic computer into electrical and/or magnetic control signals with the aid of which a milling machine automatically mills the working model out of a block of material; and/or that the positive substitute piece is milled by the milling machine from a block of material in accordance with control signals which are derived from surface-information signals which are electro-optically derived from the hand-shaped substitute or replacement model. The device for carrying out the method is characterized by an optical reproduction-photographing device for sweeping over the portion of the tooth in question; furthermore, by an electronic computer for sensing and evaluating the surface-information signals generated by a reproducing device, a milling machine, and/or if necessary, a storage apparatus.
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