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Dental equipment designed for use in machining dental materials (e.g., ceramic blocks) into desired prostheses by performing mechanical operations such as drilling and cutting using computer-aided design and manufacturing (i.e., CAD/CAM) procedures. These machines usually consist of table-top or stand-alone equipment that includes a milling chamber with a rotating assembly (also known as spindle), associated detachable drilling devices (e.g., drill bits, end mills, burs), and a holder for the piece (e.g., ceramic block) that is being machined. The spindle movements are precisely controlled (e.g., to less than 25 microns). CAD/CAM dental milling/drilling machines are digitally controlled directly or through a local area network (LAN) from a computer that includes appropriate software. Dental milling/drilling machines may be used to manufacture prostheses for many different applications (e.g., partial prostheses, dentures) using digital data from dental digital scanning impression units; some machines are intended for use in both dentists\' offices and/or dental laboratories.
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