Pose estimation of teeth through crown-shape matching

This paper presents a technique for determining a tooth's pose given a dental plaster cast and a set of generic tooth models. The ultimate goal of pose estimation is to obtain information about the sizes and positions of the roots, which lie hidden within the gums, without the use of X-rays, CT or MRI. In our approach, the tooth of interest is first extracted from the 3D dental cast image through segmentation. 2D views are then generated from the extracted tooth and are matched against a target view generated from the generic model with known pose. Additional views are generated in the vicinity of the best view and the entire process is repeated until convergence. Upon convergence, the generic tooth is superimposed onto the dental cast to show the position of the root. The results of applying the technique to canines demonstrate the excellent potential of the algorithm for generic tooth fitting.