Abstract
A novel three-dimensional dental X-ray imaging method is introduced, based on hybrid data collected with a dental panoramic device. Such a device uses geometric movement of the X-ray source and detector around the head of a patient to produce a panoramic image, where all teeth are in sharp focus and details at a distance from the dental arc are blurred. A digital panoramic device is reprogrammed to collect two-dimensional projection radiographs. Two complementary types of data are measured from a region of interest: projection data with a limited angle of view, and a panoramic image. Tikhonov regularization is applied to these data in order to produce three-dimensional reconstructions. The algorithm is tested with simulated data and real-world in vitro measurements from a dry mandible. Reconstructions from limited-angle projection data alone do provide the dentist with three-dimensional information useful for dental implant planning. Furthermore, adding panoramic data to the process improves the reconstruction precision in the direction of the dental arc. The presented imaging modality can be seen as a cost-effective alternative to a full-angle CT scanner.
Highlights
Dentists often need precise three-dimensional information about dental tissue for diagnosis and treatment
In the case of realworld data, the two-dimensional projection radiographs are measured by moving the panoramic device so that the narrow charge-coupled device sensor collects the transmitted X-rays
The projection data corresponding to the computer-based phantom consists of 11 simulated parallel beam projections with a limited angle of view of ±21 degrees with respect to the tangent of the sharp layer depicted by the dashed line in the top left image of Figure 3
Summary
Dentists often need precise three-dimensional information about dental tissue for diagnosis and treatment. This is the case, for example, in detecting bone loss between teeth, in determining the spatial relationship between the roots of a wisdom tooth and close-by nerves, and in the main application considered in this work, dental implant planning. Every dental clinic has at least two different X-ray devices: chair-side intraoral X-ray device for taking two-dimensional projection images (or radiographs) of a few teeth at a time, and a panoramic device for taking a panoramic image showing all dental structures simultaneously. Intraoral radiographs and panoramic images are two-dimensional and do not always contain enough information due to overlapping of features
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