Integration of intra-oral imagery and volumetric imagery

Abstract

Systems and methods for integrating intra-oral imagery and volumetric imagery. In one example, a dental imaging system includes a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the dental imaging system to receive shape data of a super-gingival portion of a patient's teeth; receive volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion of the patient's teeth and volumetric imagery of a sub-gingival portion of the patient's teeth; segment the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth; and register the crowns with the volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of integrating intra-oral imagery and volumetric imagery, the method comprising:
 receiving, via a computer, shape data of a super-gingival portion of a patient's teeth;   receiving, via the computer, volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion of the patient's teeth and volumetric imagery of a sub-gingival portion of the patient's teeth;   segmenting, via the computer, the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth; and   registering, via the computer, the crowns with the volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion.   
     
     
         2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising integrating the crowns with a voxel representation of the volumetric imagery to demarcate a boundary between roots and crowns in the volumetric imagery. 
     
     
         3 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising mapping coordinates of crown boundaries to voxels of the volumetric imagery to determine a boundary between roots and crowns in the volumetric imagery. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering, via the computer, the crowns with the volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion includes registering the crowns to voxels of the volumetric imagery. 
     
     
         5 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the segmenting, via the computer, the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth includes representing the crowns as a surface mesh of node points. 
     
     
         6 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the crowns are represented as limited length vectors. 
     
     
         7 . The method as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the limited length vectors are converted to vowel representations via three dimensional coordinate transformations. 
     
     
         8 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein segmenting, via the computer, the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth includes processing a point cloud via an integrating application. 
     
     
         9 . A dental imaging system for integrating intra-oral imagery and volumetric imagery, the dental imaging system including a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the dental imaging system to:
 receive shape data of a super-gingival portion of a patient's teeth;   receive volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion of the patient's teeth and volumetric imagery of a sub-gingival portion of the patient's teeth;   segment the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth; and   register the crowns with the volumetric imagery of the super-gingival portion.   
     
     
         10 . The dental imaging system as claimed in  claim 9 , further comprising integrating the crowns with a voxel representation of the volumetric imagery to demarcate a boundary between roots and crowns in the volumetric imagery. 
     
     
         11 . The dental imaging system as claimed in  claim 9 , further comprising mapping coordinates of crown boundaries to voxels of the volumetric imagery to determine a boundary between roots and crowns in the volumetric imagery. 
     
     
         12 . The dental imaging system as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein the crowns are represented as limited length vectors. 
     
     
         13 . The dental imaging system as claimed in  claim 12 , wherein the limited length vectors are converted to vowel representations via three dimensional coordinate transformations. 
     
     
         14 . The dental imaging system as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the dental imaging system to segment the shape data to determine crowns of the patient's teeth by processing a point cloud via an integrating application.