Technical note: An initial comparison of odontometric methods: Caliper versus computer guided profilometry
✍ Scribed by Dr. John P. Conry; John P. Beyer; Maria R. Pintado
- Book ID
- 101459683
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 179 KB
- Volume
- 87
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-9483
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A system recently developed for measuring wear in dental restorative materials may have applications in the field of physical anthropology. The method, computerized profilometry, uses a computer guided stylus to digitize a tooth surface directly or via epoxy replicas. The digital information is manipulated using customized computer graphic software programs which include the following features: three-dimensional measurement, comparison of surfaces using "goodness of fit" algorithms, and color graphic representations of anatomic surfaces. The system has been calibrated to an accuracy of 0.0006 mm3
The advantages offered by mensurational and descriptive studies of the dentition are well recognized. The detailed morphologic structure of teeth reflect the results of isolation, inbreeding, hybridization, drift, and other phenomena responsible for the genetic compositions of populations (Kraus and Furr, 1953). To adequately study these characteristics, subtle measurement techniques are required. Because of the complex shape of human tooth crowns, many investigators have concentrated on simple measurements of tooth size, including length, breadth, and computed area of the crown. But these simple indicators do not reveal all the morphological information which tooth crowns provide (Wood and Abbott, 1983).
Detailed digitizations of tooth occlusal surfaces are now possible (DeLong et al., 1985). Primarily used in wear studies of dental restorative materials, the method can