Dental image analysis for disease diagnosis

Abstract

quotDental radiographs are mostly essential for the diagnosis and detection of dental problems. This research work presents a few computational approaches in the area of medical image analysis to detect and diagnose the dental caries in case of decayed tooth. In case of medical images human involvement and perception is of prime importance. It is indeed a difficult task to identify fine features and region of interest from different types of dental radiographs. Since last few years software developers along with domain experts have designed a few scientific tools to help practitioners (dentists) in deciding the right treatment on the basis of visual perception, domain knowledge and computational results. It has been found through detail in depth discussion with selected dental experts that as radiographic imaging study in medical practice provides better clue for diagnosis, but it is not merely the final tool; as investigations must be co-related with clinical findings. In this work, various dental caries related problems have been discussed and a proposed identification of dental caries in decayed tooth is suggested. In the research, six different types of dental problems namely Idopathic Resorption, Abscess, Cyst, Dental Implants, Endodontic Treatment or Filling, Impacted 3rd Molar, Erthyroplakia and Leukoplakia and their computational solutions have been proposed by different methods. The experimental results have demonstrated that image enhancement techniques plays important role in improving the quality and low contrast of dental radiographic image. The research mainly explores and contributes to development and use of different image segmentation methods in extraction of region of interest from dental radiographs. Enhanced and segmented part of decayed tooth from given digital dental radiograph plays the key role of as part of investigation. This resultant image would help the dentist in the form of prediagnosis suggestions at an early stage for taking the preliminary care of the patient. In summary, the prese