Extraction of trabecular structures of mandible excluding tooth roots on dental panoramic radiographs using mathematical morphology

In this paper, an extraction method of trabecular structures from dental panoramic radiographs using mathematical morphological operations is proposed. It can extract trabeculae excluding roots of teeth and enables the assessment of tooth extraction for trabecular pattern. A measurement method of the lengths and directions of trabecular segments is also proposed in this paper. It is suggested that the measurements of healthy and osteoporotic examples support our hypothesis that the trabeculae parallel to the roots are reduced more than those perpendicular to the roots by osteoporosis