Technical note: A freeware, equitable approach to dental topographic analysis

Abstract

AbstractDental topographic analysis has proved a valuable tool for quantifying dental morphology. Established workflows often use proprietary software for pre‐processing dental surfaces, rendering the method expensive and inaccessible to many. This study explores the use of freeware pre‐processing alternatives. We tested 4 decimation tools and 13 smoothing tools across 7 different freeware packages. Surfaces generated via proprietary software could not be replicated, but it was possible to obtain statistically similar measurements using freeware. Based on this investigation, we propose a freeware workflow for researchers to conduct dental topographic analysis, with the expectation that their results will be comparable to that obtained through proprietary methods.