Background: The customized mandible reconstruction has been a challenging task in maxillofacial surgery. Designing an implant taking into considering the surrounding bone contours is really critical. Various computer aided design techniques have been used in the designing the customized reconstruction implants, but nevertheless study on the comparison between these techniques is rarely used.
Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the mirroring and anatomical reconstruction design techniques used in the maxillofacial surgery and select the best design technique.
Methods: The three mandible bone defects-small (< 20 mm), medium (20 to 40 mm) and large (41 to 53 mm) tumors are reconstructed using the two reconstruction design techniques and compared to their accuracy, using a 3 dimensional (3D) implant design evaluation and part to Computer aided design (CAD) comparison using a Co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM).
Results: The analysis results indicate that the mirroring technique provides higher accuracy for the implant design as compared to the anatomical technique for the medium and large tumors at maxillofacial regions. In case of implant design in small tumors, the anatomical design provides perfect implant fitting.
Conclusions: Based on the results, it is recommended to select the anatomy design technique only for small tumor regions and mirroring technique for medium and large tumors.
Keywords: CT scan; anatomy reconstruction; co-ordinate measuring machine; customized design implants; maxillofacial surgery; medical modelling; mirroring technique.