Computer-aided design of dental inlay restoration based on dual-factor constrained deformation

Abstract

Computer-aided design technology has been applied extensively in the field of dental restoration. Inlay is a commonly used restoration type for reconstructing the partially destroyed teeth and restoring occlusal function. The designed occlusal surface should fit the anatomy of each defect region, and the modeling process should be efficient for clinical applications. This paper presents a robust dual-factor constrained deformation framework for dental inlay modeling, consisting of four necessary steps: cavity contour extraction using a heuristic search strategy, semi-automatic template tooth positioning through a four-step affine transformation involving ``Translation-Rotation-Rotation-Scaling”, tooth surface segmentation by means of sampling ray-tracing collisions, and occlusal surface reconstruction based on dual-factor constrained deformation, which was implemented by defining a segmentation constraint and cavity contour constraint. We demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method by presenting several clinical applications. The designed 3D inlay model can retain the morphological features of generic teeth and match well with the residual tooth surface.