The virtual patient in dental medicine

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this Short Communication was to present a workflow for the superimposition of intraoral scan (IOS), cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), and extraoral face scan (EOS) creating a 3D virtual dental patient.

Material and methods: As a proof-of-principle, full arch IOS, preoperative CBCT, and mimic EOS were taken and superimposed to a unique 3D data pool. The connecting link between the different files was to detect existing teeth as constant landmarks in all three data sets.

Results: This novel application technique successfully demonstrated the feasibility of building a craniofacial virtual model by image fusion of IOS, CBCT, and EOS under 3D static conditions.

Conclusions: The presented application is the first approach that realized the fusion of intraoral and facial surfaces combined with skeletal anatomy imaging. This novel 3D superimposition technique allowed the simulation of treatment planning, the exploration of the patients' expectations, and the implementation as an effective communication tool. The next step will be the development of a real-time 4D virtual patient in motion.

Keywords: cone-beam computed tomography; digital dental medicine; extraoral face scan; intraoral scan; superimposition; virtual patient.