Application of video surgery to orthodontic diagnosis

The purpose of this project was to develop a practical methodology for predicting the visual facial changes resulting from the movement of anterior teeth. The armamentarium includes an 8-bit audiovisual computer, a video camera, a digitizer, and a cephalogram of the patient. The system outputs the patient's profile on a personal computer video display. The image is superimposed on the soft tissue line of a digitized cephalogram plot on the same display. The video profile image is transformed from analog to digital signals. The profile image digitized by the computer is modified according to average ratios of soft tissue to hard tissue changes induced by modifications to the hard tissues. The program incorporates the spline function to smooth the profile image.