Endodontic guided treatment using augmented reality on a head-mounted display system

• Published in: Healthcare technology letters Vol. 5; no. 5; pp. 201 - 207
• Main Authors: Song, Tianyu, Yang, Chenglin, Dianat, Omid, Azimi, Ehsan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warwick The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.10.2018; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: 22.3 million endodontic procedures; Accuracy; assistive augmented reality; augmented reality; Calcification; Cameras; canal transportation; Dental implants; dentistry; Dentists; endodontic procedure; endodontic treatment; Endodontics; head-mounted display system; helmet mounted displays; HMD; improper access cavity design; incomplete access cavity design; involved teeth; ledge; patient treatment; proper access cavity; root canal system; root canal treatments; Special Issue: Papers from the 12th Workshop on Augmented Environments for Computer-Assisted Interventions; successful treatment outcome; Teeth; endodontic procedure; improper access cavity design; dentistry; endodontic treatment; involved teeth; root canal treatments; ledge; augmented reality; helmet mounted displays; proper access cavity; assistive augmented reality; incomplete access cavity design; root canal system; patient treatment; successful treatment outcome; canal transportation; 22.3 million endodontic procedures; head-mounted display system; HMD
• ISSN: 2053-3713; 2053-3713
• DOI: 10.1049/htl.2018.5062

Endodontic treatment is performed to treat inflamed or infected root canal system of any involved teeth. It is estimated that 22.3 million endodontic procedures are performed annually in the USA. Preparing a proper access cavity before cleaning/shaping (instrumentation) of the root canal system is among the most important steps to achieve a successful treatment outcome. However, accidents such as perforation, gouging, ledge and canal transportation may occur during the procedure because of an improper or incomplete access cavity design. To reduce or prevent these errors in root canal treatments, this Letter introduces an assistive augmented reality (AR) technology on the head-mounted display (HMD). The proposed system provides audiovisual warning and correction in situ on the optical see-through HMD to assist the dentists to prepare access cavity. Interaction of the clinician with the system is via voice commands allowing the bi-manual operation. Also, dentist is able to review tooth radiographs during the procedure without the need to divert attention away from the patient and look at a separate monitor. Experiments are performed to evaluate the accuracy of the measurements. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that an HMD-based AR prototype is introduced for an endodontic procedure.