Visualization of tooth for 3-D simulation

In this paper, we present a 3D tooth visualization system for the simulation of endodontic, orthodontic, and other dental treatments. Detail 3D model of individual tooth in mandible can be simulated and it can be rotated virtually around any axis to determine the best approach of surgery. To obtain higher accuracy of the reconstructed 3D model, a new segmentation method based on adaptive optimal thresholding and genetic snake is applied on the 2D CT images to separate individual tooth region as well as to extract the tooth contour. Surface reconstruction phase utilizes the contour data and the the vertices of the contours of successive slices of CT images to form the triangular surface mesh of tooth. The paper, therefore, reports on experimentation with novel interactive techniques designed to work with the available geometric representation to teeth.