Tooth Completion and Reconstruction in Digital Orthodontics.

Area of Science:

• Digital dentistry
• Computational geometry
• Biomedical imaging

Background:

• Intraoral scans in digital orthodontics capture only dental crowns, omitting essential root information.
• Complete dental models, including roots, are crucial for accurate visualization and treatment planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce an algorithmic pipeline for completing dental models by reconstructing missing tooth roots.
• To preserve the original crown's geometry and mesh topology during root completion.

Main Methods:

• Learning-based point cloud completion for existing dental crowns.
• Reconstruction of a complete tooth model (crown and root) to guide processing.
• Restoration of crown geometry and mesh topology using Delaunay meshing.
• Optimization of the crown-root transition region via bi-harmonic smoothing.

Main Results:

• The pipeline successfully completes dental models by adding accurate tooth roots.
• The original crown geometry and mesh topology are preserved.
• High-quality triangulation of the reconstructed dental roots is achieved.

Conclusions:

• The developed pipeline provides a robust solution for generating complete dental models.
• This method enhances digital orthodontic workflows by enabling accurate root visualization and treatment planning.