VIRTUAL DENTAL LABORATORY

This is a cloud system suited to evaluate the buoyancy of different dental treatments by tomographic analysis of tooth. Quantitative comparison of 3D tooth structure acquired before and after treatment allows determining the quality and efficiency of tools and materials used for dental treatments. If the two acquired tomographic structures are not aligned VDL achieves a quick 3D image overlapping.

Several algorithms available in VDL allows to visualize detailed morphological and anatomical structures of teeth and obtain quantitative estimation of related parameters to evaluate the quality of dental treatments, e.g. endodontic, conservative and restorative treatments, but also accurate analysis of re-treatments can be obtained.

As example the effect of endodontic canal treatment can be visualized in a 3D image using different colors to highlight the instrumentation effect on the canal volume and surface. Also the same information is available as 2D image stack and quantitatively on Excel datasheet. VDL estimates volume of removed dentin, the percentage of treated canal surface for each canal, the volume of debris still present and the distances between the canal surface and the tooth wall. Very important for this analysis is that in the presence of canal bifurcations it is possible to choose easily the canal path to be studied. Also quantitative parameters can be organized by dividing the canal length into three portions (e.g. apical, middle, coronal) or more (e.g. every millimeter). Each portion can be divided into four quadrants (Mesial, Buccal, Lingual, Distal) or more by choosing an appropriate angular step.

An example of the analysis of conservative treatments is sketched below highlighting some slices from the 3D structure. The image shows the superposition between 3D tooth structures of tooth with cavity preparation only (white) and after application of dental adhesive used to restore the portion of the tooth removed (green). The superposition evidences the formation of micro-cracks (red) following the photo-polymerization of the adhesive material inside the tooth. The micro-crack together with some voids, at the interface between tooth and adhesive, are due to incorrect cavity filling and shrinkage of the material and are more clearly visualized looking at the corresponding 2D images where crack is light gray, adhesive composite is dark gray and voids are white.