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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1419481
This article is part of the Research Topic Orthodontic Treatment and Bone Physiology View all articles

Precision and accuracy of craniofacial growth and orthodontic treatment evaluation by digital image correlation: a prospective cohort study

Provisionally accepted
Jan C. Danz Jan C. Danz 1*Simone Stöckli Simone Stöckli 1Per Rank Per Rank 2
  • 1 University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2 Independent researcher, Odense, Denmark

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    INTRODUCTION: A precise and accurate method for structural superimposition is essential for analyzing dentofacial growth and orthodontic or surgical treatment in longitudinal studies. The errors associated with different superimposition methods have not yet been assessed in high-quality studies. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the precision and accuracy of digital image correlation (DIC) for structural superimposition. METHODS: Two cephalometric images from 30 consecutive patients were superimposed using three DIC methods, each measured twice by two examiners. Areas including the contours of the sella, whole cranial base (CB), and Walker’s point and lamina cribrosa (WPLC) were compared using a random coefficient model. Inter-rater and intra-rater errors were assessed for each method. RESULTS: WPLC provided the best precision for image rotation and cephalometric landmarks. Systematic bias was observed between the WPLC and CB methods for image rotation and most landmarks. The intra-rater error in image rotation during DIC was strongly correlated with the intra-rater error in the landmarks of the anterior nasal spine, articulare, and pogonion. CONCLUSION: Structural superimposition using DIC with WPLC is a precise method for analyzing dentofacial growth and orthodontic or surgical treatment. Moreover, the best method is the measurement of longitudinal dental and craniofacial changes on structurally superimposed cephalometric radiographs with WPLC and a reference grid including the true vertical and horizontal lines from Walker’s point.

    Keywords: Growth and Development, Structural superimposition, digital image correlation, Orthodontic treatment, maxillofacial surgery

    Received: 18 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Danz, Stöckli and Rank. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jan C. Danz, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.