RESEARCH ARTICLE
3-D Volumetric Evaluation of Human Mandibular Growth
Mathew Reynoldsa, *, Michael Reynoldsb, Samer Adeeba, Tarek El-Bialyc
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 83
Last Page: 89
Publisher ID: TOBEJ-5-83
DOI: 10.2174/1874120701105010083
Article History:
Received Date: 2/4/2011Revision Received Date: 17/6/2011
Acceptance Date: 29/6/2011
Electronic publication date: 14/10/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Bone growth is a complex process that is controlled by a multitude of mechanisms that are not fully understood.Most of the current methods employed to measure the growth of bones focus on either studying cadaveric bones from different individuals of different ages, or successive two-dimensional (2D) radiographs. Both techniques have their known limitations. The purpose of this study was to explore a technique for quantifying the three dimensional (3D) growth of an adolescent human mandible over the period of one year utilizing cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans taken for regular orthodontic records. Three -dimensional virtual models were created from the CBCT data using mainstream medical imaging software. A comparison between computer-generated surface meshes of successive 3-D virtual models illustrates the magnitude of relative mandible growth. The results of this work are in agreement with previously reported data from human cadaveric studies and implantable marker studies. The presented method provides a new relatively simple basis (utilizing commercially available software) to visualize and evaluate individualized 3D (mandibular) growth in vivo.
