Objective: The purpose of this study is to propose a complete methodology for
automatically registering three-dimensional (3D) pre-operative and post-operative CT scan
dental volumes as well as to provide a toolset for quantifying and evaluating their volumetric
differences.
Methods: The proposed methodology was applied to cone beam CT (CBCT) data from 20
patients in order to assess the volume of augmented bone in the alveolar region. In each case,
the pre-operative and post-operative data were registered using a 3D affine-based scheme.
The performance of the 3D registration algorithm was evaluated by measuring the average
distance between the edges of the registered sets. The differences between the registered sets
were assessed through 3D subtraction radiography. The volume of the differences was finally
evaluated by defining regions of interest in each slice of the subtracted 3D data and by
combining all respective slices to model the desired volume of interest. The effectiveness of
the algorithm was verified by applying it to several reference standard-shaped objects with
known volumes.
Results: Satisfactory alignment was achieved as a low average offset of 1.483¡1.558mm
was recorded between the edges of the registered sets. Moreover, the estimated volumes
closely matched the volumes of the reference objects used for verification, as the recorded
volume differences were less than 0.4 mm3 in all cases.
Conclusion: The proposed method allows for automatic registration of 3D CBCT data sets
and the volumetric assessment of their differences in particular areas of interest. The
proposed approach provides accurate volumetric measurements in three dimensions,
requiring minimal user interaction.