For patients with partial jaw defects, cysts and dental implants, doctors need to take panoramic X-ray films or manually draw dental arch lines to generate Panorama images in order to observe their complete dentition information during oral diagnosis. In order to solve the problems of additional burden for patients to take panoramic X-ray films and time-consuming issue for doctors to manually segment dental arch lines, this paper proposes an automatic panorama reconstruction method based on cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT). The V-network (VNet) is used to pre-segment the teeth and the background to generate the corresponding binary image, and then the Bezier curve is used to define the best dental arch curve to generate the oral panorama. In addition, this research also addressed the issues of mistakenly recognizing the teeth and jaws as dental arches, incomplete coverage of the dental arch area by the generated dental arch lines, and low robustness, providing intelligent methods for dental diagnosis and improve the work efficiency of doctors.
Objective To summarize the latest development of the oral and maxillofacial reparative and reconstructive surgery. Methods The literature at home and abroad was reviewed and the main creative concepts in this field were summarized and analyzed. Results In the terms of the oral and maxillofacial reparative and reconstructive surgery, the significant achievements were made in the following aspects: transplantation of revascularized tissues, artificial materials, plateletrich plasma, distraction osteogenesis, microsurgery on fracture, arthroplasty, dynamic repair, and computerassisted design. Conclusion Based on the previous achievements, the oral and maxillofacial reparative and reconstructive surgery will have a further development, especially in the individualized treatment.
Objective To evaluate the quality of clinical studies on dentistry from the Chinese Journals. Methods Clinical studies in Chinese Journal of Conservative Dentistry of 2002 were searched. The quality of the clinical studies on assessment of treatments’ efficacy was evaluated. Results Among 204 related studies from 12 issues, there were 93 (45.58%) restrospective intervention studies, 6 randomized controlled blinded trials (2.94%), 42 randomized trials without blindness (20.58%), 20 controlled trials without randomization (9.80%) and 25 clinical observational studies (12.25%). The statistical analysis showed that 20 studies were with inappropriate methods. Conclusions It is necessary to improve the design and statistical analysis of clinical studies on stomatology in China to produce high-quality research evidence.
Complete three-dimensional (3D) tooth model provides essential information to assist orthodontists for diagnosis and treatment planning. Currently, 3D tooth model is mainly obtained by segmentation and reconstruction from dental computed tomography (CT) images. However, the accuracy of 3D tooth model reconstructed from dental CT images is low and not applicable for invisalign design. And another serious problem also occurs,i.e. frequentative dental CT scan during different intervals of orthodontic treatment often leads to radiation to the patients. Hence, this paper proposed a method to reconstruct tooth model based on fusion of dental CT images and laser-scanned images. A complete 3D tooth model was reconstructed with the registration and fusion between the root reconstructed from dental CT images and the crown reconstructed from laser-scanned images. The crown of the complete 3D tooth model reconstructed with the proposed method has higher accuracy. Moreover, in order to reconstruct complete 3D tooth model of each orthodontic treatment interval, only one pre-treatment CT scan is needed and in the orthodontic treatment process only the laser-scan is required. Therefore, radiation to the patients can be reduced significantly.
ObjectiveTo investigate the application value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) technique to assist the repair of oral and maxillofacial defects by superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap.MethodsSixteen oral cancer patients, 10 males and 6 females, who were to undergo superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap repair between June 2018 and February 2020, were selected, with an average age of 55.8 years (range, 24-77 years). There were 13 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 2 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma, and 1 case of mucinous epidermis-like carcinoma. The color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) and CEUS were used to screen the superficial inferior epigastric artery, assisted in the design of the flap, and compared it with the actual intraoperative exploration. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of CEUS and CDUS examinations were analyzed. Fourteen of 16 patients were repaired with superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap, and 2 patients were repaired with superficial iliac artery flap because the source artery was not found. After surgery, regular follow-up was performed to check for disease recurrence and metastasis and to evaluate the appearance of the patien’s donor area, the recovery of transoral feeding function, and the presence of complications.ResultsComparison of preoperative CDUS and CEUS findings and intraoperative exploration showed that CEUS had 100% sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for vascular exploration of the superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap, compared with 57%, 100%, 100%, and 25% for CDUS. The preoperative CDUS identified 25 penetrating vessels in 14 cases repaired with superficial inferior epigastric artery flaps. All vessel signals were enhanced by CEUS enhancement, and an additional 11 penetrating vessels were identified confirmed intraoperatively. The preoperative CEUS measurements of the initial diameter of superficial arteries in the abdominal wall were significantly higher than both CDUS and intraoperative measurements (P<0.05); the difference in peak systolic velocity between CEUS and CDUS measurements was significant (t=3.708, P=0.003). One case of superficial epigastric artery perforator flap developed venous embolism crisis at 48 hours after operation, the wound healing delayed. The other incisions in donor sites healed by first intention. All the patients were followed up 3-12 months, with an average of 8 months. No recurrence or metastasis appeared during the follow-up. There was no serious complications such as abdominal wall hernia, the location of abdominal scarring was hidden, and transoral feeding was resumed.ConclusionThe superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap with small injury in supply area and hidden scar location is a better choice for repairing oral and maxillofacial defects. The use of CEUS technique to assist the preoperative design of the superficial inferior epigastric artery perforator flap has good feasibility and high accuracy.
Objective To develop an evaluation tool for the screening of high risk population for oral complications in critically ill patients, which can be performed accurately and scientifically. Methods Basing on the related foreign oral assessment scale, combined with the method of brainstorming, expert consultation, method of clinical status and so on, the item pool of the assessment scale was determined. Five nursing experts and two oral experts assessed the content validity and 50 ICU nurses were tested. Then, the screening accuracy of the assessment scale was proved by application in 100 critically ill patients selected randomly. Results The Cronbach’s a coefficient of final version of the High Risk Assessment Scale for Oral Complications in Critically Ill Patients (including seven parts contents of oral health assessment and oral pH value test) was 0.815, the content validity index (Sr-CVI/Ave) was 0.932. The results of 50 nurses to the 91.2% assessment items of the assessment scale were very important and important. For screening related indicators of oral complications in high-risk patients, the sensitivity of the assessment scale was 97.53%, the specificity was 94.11%, the positive predictive value was 98.75%, the negative predictive value was 88.89%, and the crude agreement was 95%. Conclusion There are good reliability, validity and a high accuracy of screening test in the High Risk Assessment Scale for Oral Complications in Critically Ill Patients. It can be used for screening patients at high risk for oral complications in critically ill patients, and help clinical nurses to complete the oral health status of the critically ill patients quickly.