Background: A dentist always checks a patient by using panoramic radiography (PR) initially. The measurement of the minimal distance (MD) between the alveolar crest and the mandibular canal (MC) superior border is critically important before the dental implant surgery, extraction of 3rd molar teeth or any surgery in the posterior area of minimal distance (MD). However, the image of MC is not always clear to identify.
Objective: A software is needed for training dentists as well as a tool of demonstration to patients in clinics precisely and quickly. Moreover, it should be able to calculate the MD between the alveolar crest and the MC superior border before dental implant.
Methods: A computer-aided software system to semi-automatically detect the MC and mental foramen (MF) in the PR with minimal human interference is proposed.
Results: The result shows that the averaged relative error (RE) is 1.83% with a standard deviation of 2.31%.
Conclusion: The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to detect the MC superior and inferior borders. This system has the potential to train young clinicians and to replace the manual work in measuring the MD between the alveolar crest and the MC superior border with a minimal human intervention.
Keywords: alveolar crest; dental implant; dual dynamic programming; mandibular canal; mental foramen.