Towards AR-assisted visualisation and guidance for imaging of dental decay

• Main Authors: Yaxuan Zhou, Paul Yoo, Yingru Feng, Aditya Sankar, Alireza Sadr, Eric J. Seibel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019-10-01
• Series: Healthcare Technology Letters
• Subjects: patient treatment; enamels; medical image processing; dentistry; data visualisation; augmented reality; untreated dental decay; prevalent dental problem; significant economic burden; social burden; irreversible effects; expensive restorative treatment; early decay management difficult; unreliable detection; quantitative monitoring; early decay therapy; situ visualisation; pre-operative optically based dental images; augmented guidance; repetitive imaging; therapy monitoring; mitigate hand–eye coordination problems; help guide monitoring; tooth decay management
• Online Access: https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/htl.2019.0082

Untreated dental decay is the most prevalent dental problem in the world, affecting up to 2.4 billion people and leading to a significant economic and social burden. Early detection can greatly mitigate irreversible effects of dental decay, avoiding the need for expensive restorative treatment that forever disrupts the enamel protective layer of teeth. However, two key challenges exist that make early decay management difficult: unreliable detection and lack of quantitative monitoring during treatment. New optically based imaging through the enamel provides the dentist a safe means to detect, locate, and monitor the healing process. This work explores the use of an augmented reality (AR) headset to improve the workflow of early decay therapy and monitoring. The proposed workflow includes two novel AR-enabled features: (i) in situ visualisation of pre-operative optically based dental images and (ii) augmented guidance for repetitive imaging during therapy monitoring. The workflow is designed to minimise distraction, mitigate hand–eye coordination problems, and help guide monitoring of early decay during therapy in both clinical and mobile environments. The results from quantitative evaluations as well as a formative qualitative user study uncover the potentials of the proposed system and indicate that AR can serve as a promising tool in tooth decay management.