title: Separation of overlapping dental arch objects using digital records of illuminated plaster casts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Plaster casts of individual patients are important for orthodontic specialists during the treatment process and their analysis is still a standard diagnostical tool. But the growing capabilities of information technology enable their replacement by digital models obtained by complex scanning systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper presents the possibility of using a digital camera as a simple instrument to obtain the set of digital images for analysis and evaluation of the treatment using appropriate mathematical tools of image processing. The methods studied in this paper include the segmentation of overlapping dental bodies and the use of different illumination sources to increase the reliability of the separation process. The circular Hough transform, region growing with multiple seed points, and the convex hull detection method are applied to the segmentation of orthodontic plaster cast images to identify dental arch objects and their sizes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed algorithm presents the methodology of improving the accuracy of segmentation of dental arch components using combined illumination sources. Dental arch parameters and distances between the canines and premolars for different segmentation methods were used as a measure to compare the results obtained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A new method of segmentation of overlapping dental arch components using digital records of illuminated plaster casts provides information with the precision required for orthodontic treatment. The distance between corresponding teeth was evaluated with a mean error of 1.38% and the Dice similarity coefficient of the evaluated dental bodies boundaries reached 0.9436 with a false positive rate [Formula: see text] and false negative rate [Formula: see text].
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing and Control Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic. Mohammadreza1.Yadollahi@vscht.cz.
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yadollahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing and Control Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic. A.Prochazka@ieee.org.|Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, Czech Technical University, Zikova 1903/4, 166 36, Prague 6, Czech Republic. A.Prochazka@ieee.org.
authors.forename: Aleš
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Procházka
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing and Control Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic. Magdalena.Kasparova@fnmotol.cz.|Department of Paediatric Stomatology, The Second Medical Faculty, Charles University, V Úvalu 84, 150 06, Prague 5, Czech Republic. Magdalena.Kasparova@fnmotol.cz.
authors.forename: Magdaléna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kašparová
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing and Control Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic. Vysatao@gmail.com.|Department of Neurology, Charles University, Sokolská 581, 500 05, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. Vysatao@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Oldřich
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vyšata
authors.affiliation: Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, Czech Technical University, Zikova 1903/4, 166 36, Prague 6, Czech Republic. marik@labe.felk.cvut.cz.
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mařík
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000703:Analog-Digital Conversion; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D003724:Dental Arch / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003735:Dental Casting Technique; D003792:Dental Records; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008029:Lighting / Q000379:methods; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods*; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio