Estimation of Lower Jaw Density using CT data

Bone density is one of the factors in the early failure of dental implants and doctors should make a preoperative assessment of jaw bone density using patient's CT data before dental implant surgery in order to find out whether the patient has osteoporosis and osteopenia. The main goal of this study was to propose a method that based on image processing techniques in order to provide accurate information about where to drill and place an abutment screw of implants in the jaw bone for doctors and reduce human activity for the estimation of the local cancellous bone density of mandible using CT data. The experiment was performed on a computed tomography data of the jaw bone of two different individuals. We assumed that the result of the estimation of jaw bone density depends on the angle of drilling and average HU (Hounsfield Unit) values were used to evaluate the quality of local cancellous bone density of mandible. As a result of this study, we have been developed a toolbox that can be used to estimate jaw bone density automatically and found a positive correlation between the angle of the drill and time complexity but a negative correlation between the diameter of the drill and time complexity.