A method of computing the intersurface distance between opposing teeth.
Conventional methods of clinically evaluating tooth occlusion, employing articulating papers and bite impression materials, do not permit a quantitative analysis the occlusion. To overcome this, the shapes of opposing teeth are digitized in three-dimensions and intersurface distances are evaluated in detail. Computational geometry deals with this as a closest-point problem, i.e. the closest points from each surface point must be found by scanning the opposing surface. This process is, in most cases, quite time consuming. In order to expedite the computations required, we present here an algorithm for this determination, whereby the scan area is successively reduced without complicating the scanning procedure, thus accelerating the search. The efficiency of this algorithm was experimentally proved by comparing its computation time with that of the algorithm previously used.
Hayashi
T
T
Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, Japan.
Hashimoto
Y
Y
Saitoh
A
A
Miyakawa
M
M
D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D003767:Dental Occlusion, Balanced; D006801:Humans; D012985:Software Design