Development of a 4-dimensional virtual patient in motion: A digital concept

This article presents a workflow for superimposing a standard tessellation language (STL) scan of a patient's mouth from an intraoral scanner (IOS), facial scanning (FS) data from an extraoral scan (EOS), skeletal cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) data, and jaw motion tracking (JMT) data to create a 4-dimensional virtual patient (4DVP). As a proof-of-concept, the IOS data (STL format), the STL formatted skeletal CBCT DICOM data, and the EOS and the JMT data were automatically aligned by using existing virtual casts of arches as a common link across datasets facilitated by FS and CAD software programs. This novel 4DVP model superimposition technique enables digital diagnosis, treatment planning simulation, and patient expectation management and serves as an effective communication tool.