A new methodology for automatic detection of reference points in 3D cephalometry: A pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a new method for an automatic detection of reference points in 3D cephalometry to overcome the limits of 2D cephalometric analyses.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A specific application was designed using the C++ language for automatic and manual identification of 21 (reference) points on the craniofacial structures. Our algorithm is based on the implementation of an anatomical and geometrical network adapted to the craniofacial structure. This network was constructed based on the anatomical knowledge of the 3D cephalometric (reference) points.

RESULTS: The proposed algorithm was tested on five CBCT images. The proposed approach for the automatic 3D cephalometric identification was able to detect 21 points with a mean error of 2.32mm.

DISCUSSION: In this pilot study, we propose an automated methodology for the identification of the 3D cephalometric (reference) points. A larger sample will be implemented in the future to assess the method validity and reliability.