Proposal for an image-based software system for dental implant positioning

The technological development in healthcare experienced in actual days has relationship with the integration of many knowledge areas, fundamentally by searching new solutions in order to improve the quality of life of the society. Examples of this reality appears in medicine and engineering areas, where the computer-assisted techniques works together to solve many healthcare problems. In the surgical procedures context as well, as in dental implant planning, the surgeon still determine some parameters according to his personal experience, where only the visualization of the problems through Computed Tomography images are not enough to ensure the success of the procedure. Thus, this research aims to propose a computational model, as a decision support tool, in order to define a more appropriate positioning for dental implants. This is a fundamental part to determination of the necessary parameters for the process planning because the information is obtained automatically straight from image processing. The prototype presented in this work comprises a user-friendly interface, which allows dentists to observe the bone and dental structure in multi-perspective images. Also, it determines the implant location by an automatic procedure without intervention of dentist. The text shows a study case with the autonomous determination of an implant position.