What is intelligent 3D panorama?

Dental slice machine, panoramic machine and oral CT (including CBCT) are three kinds of clinical imaging diagnostic equipment in stomatology. The first two provide doctors with two-dimensional images to make a preliminary interpretation of the lesions, while oral CT (or CBCT) provides complete three-dimensional images, providing users with more complete clinical interpretation information in all directions. Because these three technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages, they are still the main diagnostic equipment in stomatological hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Although the dental tablet machine has high resolution, it is often unable to obtain large-area images due to the limitation of shooting position, and the dental tablet needs to be placed in the patient's mouth, so the patient's experience is not good when shooting; Panoramic film can observe the whole image of the whole dentition, but there are always two technical bottlenecks: distortion and image overlap, and it is still two-dimensional, and it can only observe the distance, but can not look at the buccal and lingual direction. In recent years, the application of oral CT has become more and more perfect. Because it provides three-dimensional images, it can be observed locally, and the clinical popularization rate is getting higher and higher. However, because the technology of image reconstruction can't make a further breakthrough, metal artifacts and bone artifacts (see figure 1) always restrict the possibility of completely replacing two-dimensional X-rays.

(Figure 1)

This balance, which has been maintained by the interdependence of two-dimensional and three-dimensional images for many years, was changed in June this year (20 18) by a research and development team from Chicago, USA. Using high-quality CT images, they introduced a technology called "Intelligent 3D Panorama", which not only solved the problem of overlapping traditional panoramic images, but also solved the image distortion that traditional CT could not avoid due to the interference of metal artifacts and bone artifacts.

The team has adopted some AI algorithms, which can intelligently identify each patient's dental arch curve (see figure) and the corresponding physiological curvature of teeth (see figure). After many clinical tests, it has been found that even for patients with no teeth or dental arch deformity in the mouth, the intelligent 3D panoramic view can be accurately positioned, and the personalized dental arch can be scanned step by step from inside to outside to generate 33 panoramic views at one time! Moreover, the imaging quality is very good, even if the thickness of periodontal ligament is only 0.25mm, the clarity can be clearly seen as that of small dental tablets.

Traditional panorama is bound by two-dimensional vision, and the interference of spinal artifacts is widespread. It is difficult to identify the image details of tooth structure and periodontal tissue. This technical problem that has plagued doctors for many years has also been alleviated after the successful development of intelligent 3D panorama. Starting from 20 19, it is no longer an unreachable dream to simply and quickly form 33 fault panoramas at one time, but a readily available commercial product. (see photo)

Intelligent 3D panorama can generate 33 panoramas at a time, which greatly improves the diagnostic efficiency of clinicians. In the foreseeable future, intelligent 3D panorama may become a convenient routine diagnostic tool for dental clinicians!