Hua Jeremy, Chen Ssu-Kuang, Kim Yongmin
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA. jhua27@ u.washington.edu
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009;2009:440-3. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5334783.
Dental erosion has been growing increasingly prevalent with the rise in consumption of heavy starches, sugars, coffee, and acidic beverages. In addition, various disorders, such as Gastroenterological Reflux Disease (GERD), have symptoms of rapid rates of tooth erosion. The measurement of enamel thickness would be important for dentists to assess the progression of enamel loss from all forms of erosion, attrition, and abrasion. Characterizing enamel loss is currently done with various subjective indexes that can be interpreted in different ways by different dentists. Ultrasound has been utilized since the 1960s to determine internal tooth structure, but with mixed results. Via image processing and enhancement, we were able to refine B-mode dental ultrasound images for more accurate enamel thickness measurements. The mean difference between the measured thickness of the occlusal enamel from ultrasound images and corresponding gold standard CT images improved from 0.55 mm to 0.32 mm with image processing (p = 0.033). The difference also improved from 0.62 to 0.53 mm at the buccal/lingual enamel surfaces, but not significantly (p = 0.38).
随着高淀粉、糖、咖啡和酸性饮料消费量的增加，牙侵蚀现象日益普遍。此外，各种疾病，如胃食管反流病（GERD），都有牙齿侵蚀速度加快的症状。牙釉质厚度的测量对于牙医评估各种形式的侵蚀、磨耗和磨损导致的牙釉质丧失进展情况非常重要。目前，通过各种主观指标来表征牙釉质丧失情况，不同的牙医可能会有不同的解读方式。自20世纪60年代以来，超声已被用于确定牙齿内部结构，但结果不一。通过图像处理和增强，我们能够优化B模式牙科超声图像，以更准确地测量牙釉质厚度。经图像处理后，超声图像测得的咬合面牙釉质厚度与相应的金标准CT图像之间的平均差异从0.55毫米改善至0.32毫米（p = 0.033）。颊侧/舌侧牙釉质表面的差异也从0.62毫米改善至0.53毫米，但差异不显著（p = 0.38）。
