A Fast Automatic Reconstruction Method for Panoramic Images Based on Cone Beam Computed Tomography

Abstract

Panoramic images have been widely used in the diagnosis of dental diseases. In the process of panoramic image reconstruction, the position of the dental arch curve usually affects the quality of display content, especially the completion level of the panoramic image. In addition, the metal implants in the patient’s mouth often lead the contrast of the panoramic image to decrease. This paper describes a method to automatically synthesize panoramic images from dental cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) data. The proposed method has two essential features: the first feature is that the method can detect the dental arch curve through axial maximum intensity projection images over different ranges, and the second feature is that our method is able to adjust the intensity distribution of the implant in critical areas, to reduce the impact of the implant on the contrast of the panoramic image. The proposed method was tested on 50 CBCT datasets; the panoramic images generated by this method were compared with images attained from three other commonly used approaches and then subjectively scored by three experienced dentists. In the comprehensive image contrast score, the method in this paper has the highest score of 11.16 ± 2.64 points. The results show that the panoramic images generated by this method have better image contrast.