Orthopentogram Based Osteoporosis Prediction

The method for estimating reduced bone mineral density from dental radiographs is discussed in this paper. Dual X-ray absorptiometry is the common technique to determine bone mineral density. Because of high costs and limited availability, it is worthwhile to look for alternative diagnostic techniques. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of Dental Radiographic measurements as a predictor for bone mineral density and to identify the subjects with osteoporosis and the increased risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis can be' broadly defined as a decrease in the amount of bone mass per unit volume of bone. Early diagnosis of osteoporosis can potentially decrease the risk of fracture and improve the quality of life. Dental radiographs show the entire mandible. Detection of thin inferior cortices of the mandible on dental radiographs could be useful for identifying the subject with low bone mineral density (BMD) or osteoporosis. Careful expert width measurement of the inferior mandibular cortex has been shown to be predictive of low BMD. For automatic measurement of the width, active shape model is to be used. Width measured after fully automatic search are exhibit less variability than manual measurements. The original xray image is enhanced, cortical boundaries were determined; distances among the upper and lower boundaries