Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a radiographic estimate of osseous fractal dimension is useful in the characterization of structural changes in alveolar bone. Ten dry mandibular bone segments were radiographed from three controlled projection angles (−5, 0, +5 degrees), before and after acid-induced partial decalcification. Fractal dimension was estimated by regression analysis of power spectra computed by Fourier transform of selected regions of interest in digitized images of the radiographs. Repeated-measures ANOVA showed that fractal dimension so determined varied over anatomic locations ( p < .01), but increased after acid-induced demineralization ( p < .0005), irrespective of the radiographic projection angles ( p > .99). In vivo fractal dimension was computed from randomly selected intraoral radiographs of six premenopausal (ages, 32.8 ± 3.9) and six postmenopausal (ages, 62.5 ± 4.1) women. A significantly ( p < .01) higher fractal dimension was observed in the older group.
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