Panorama Tomosynthesis from Head CBCT with Simulated Projection Geometry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to synthesize panoramic X-ray images from head CBCT scans using simulated projection geometry, improving image quality even with challenging cases like missing teeth or metal implants.

Contribution

The proposed approach uniquely employs simulated projection geometry and dynamic rotation centers to generate high-quality panoramic images from diverse CBCT data, overcoming limitations of existing methods.

Findings

Effective synthesis of panoramic images from CBCT data.

Robust performance with cases involving missing teeth or metal implants.

High-quality images regardless of CBCT scanner geometry.

Abstract

Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) and Panoramic X-rays are the most commonly used imaging modalities in dental health care. CBCT can produce three-dimensional views of a patient's head, providing clinicians with better diagnostic capability, whereas Panoramic X-ray can capture the entire maxillofacial region in a single image. If the CBCT is already available, it can be beneficial to synthesize a Panoramic X-ray, thereby avoiding an immediate additional scan and extra radiation exposure. Existing methods focus on delineating an approximate dental arch and creating orthogonal projections along this arch. However, no golden standard is available for such dental arch extractions, and this choice can affect the quality of synthesized X-rays. To avoid such issues, we propose a novel method for synthesizing Panoramic X-rays from diverse head CBCTs, employing a simulated projection geometry and dynamic rotation centers. Our method effectively synthesized panoramic views from CBCT, even for patients with missing or nonexistent teeth and in the presence of severe metal implants. Our results demonstrate that this method can generate high-quality panoramic images irrespective of the CBCT scanner geometry.