[A method of dental arch auto-detection for dental plaster models].

The shape of dental arch for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment is of great significance. This paper presents an automated method for detecting the dental arch form. Firstly, 3D teeth data model is retrieved by the 3D-optical measuring system. Secondly, the occlusal plane is computed by interactively picking up four feature points. Thirdly, the feature point set is filtered by the rule and two-step curve fitting method is used to obtain the dental arch form. Finally, some examples are tested in this work and the results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is effective and feasible.