Reconstruction of Panoramic Dental Images Through Bézier Function Optimization.

Paulo H J Amorim,Thiago F Moraes,Jorge V L Silva,Helio Pedrini,Rui B Ruben

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00794

Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) and X-ray images have been extensively used as a valuable diagnostic tool in dentistry for surgical planning and treatment. Nowadays, dental cone beam CT has been extensively used in dental clinics. Therefore, it is possible to employ three-dimensional (3D) data from the CT to reconstruct a two-dimensional (2D) panoramic dental image that provides a longitudinal view of the mandibular region of the patient, avoiding an additional exposure to X-ray. In this work, we developed a new automatic method for reconstructing 2D panoramic images of the dental arch based on 3D CT images, using Bézier curves and optimization techniques. The proposed method was applied to five patients, some of them with missing teeth, and smooth panoramic images with good contrast were obtained.

Highlights

Panoramic radiography or panoramic X-ray (Rushton and Horner, 1996; Brennan, 2002; Perschbacher, 2012; Yun et al, 2019) is a two-dimensional (2D) examination used in dentistry to allow for the visualization of the entire dental arch region and adjacent facial structures through only one projection
We present and analyze a method for automatically reconstructing a panoramic radiography from Computed tomography (CT) images
Medical images in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard format can be imported to a personal computer and the developed fully automatic method is capable of reconstructing a 2D panoramic dental image

Summary

Introduction

Panoramic radiography or panoramic X-ray (Rushton and Horner, 1996; Brennan, 2002; Perschbacher, 2012; Yun et al, 2019) is a two-dimensional (2D) examination used in dentistry to allow for the visualization of the entire dental arch region and adjacent facial structures through only one projection. CT and cone beam CT have been used for reconstructing panoramic image and other 2D images, such as facial bones, lower jaw regions and nasal cavities (Donker et al, 2002; Taguchi, 2009; Rushton and Rout, 2019). These reconstruction techniques can reduce radiation dose to the patient, when compared to the classic X-ray (Yeh and Chen, 2018)

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