Panoramic Projection of 3D CT Scan Teeth Images

Dental panoramic image is widely used by both doctor and researcher. Panoramic image shows the condition of the teeth clearly. Some pathological condition such as teeth caries or cyst can be detected using panoramic image. However, taking panoramic image acquisition means that the patient needs to be exposed to radioactive exposures. Patient that has CT scan image of their head might not need to take panoramic image acquisition since previous research has shown that CT scan image can be used to create the panoramic proj ection of the patient teeth. However, the result of the panoramic projection shows that some of the teeth are missing. In this research we propose a method using morphological operations and curve fitting with a certain threshold on the fitted curve on images produced by CT scan can create a better panoramic image of patient dental condition. Our results show that using both of the methods can produce a more complete panoramic projection of patient teeth.