Generation of intra-oral-like images from cone beam computed tomography volumes for dental forensic image comparison

Identification of unknown individuals using dental comparison is well established in the forensic setting. The identification technique can be time and resource consuming if many individuals need to be identified at once. Medical CT (MDCT) for dental profiling has had limited success, mostly due to artifact from metal-containing dental restorations and implants.

The authors describe a CBCT reformatting technique that creates images, which closely approximate conventional dental images.

Using a i-CAT Platinum CBCT unit and standard issue i-CAT Vision software, a protocol is developed to reproducibly and reliably reformat CBCT volumes. The reformatted images are presented with conventional digital images from the same anatomic area for comparison.

The authors conclude that images derived from CBCT volumes following this protocol are similar enough to conventional dental radiographs to allow for dental forensic comparison/identification and that CBCT offers a superior option over MDCT for this purpose.