Digital dental models and 3D patient photographs registration for orthodontic documentation and diagnostic purposes

Orthodontic diagnosis uses the information obtained by different imaging modalities, but routine diagnosis of simple cases still relies on the orthopantomogram, the lateral cephalogram, planar photographs and dental cast models. The article presents a method of virtual registration of 3D photographs (3D facial scans) with digital dental models. By deriving the idea from old gnathostatic models we explain the registration process with the use of registration objects – an equivalent of the traditional facial arch. Potential use of such registration to create a standardized patient dataset is discussed, in order to integrate the analysis of facial and dental models.