Measurement of alveolar bone density based on image density of intraoral radiographs

Abstract

Objectives: It is important in the field of dentistry to establish a simple method for evaluating the mineral density of alveolar bone. Therefore, based on conventional microdensitometry techniques, we developed the DentalSCOPE system. The value of alveolar bone density was compared between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry（DEXA）and the DentalSCOPE system.
Methods: Twenty-six hemi-mandibles of 13 mandibles were imaged. Intraoral radiographs of the mandibular premolar region were obtained using X-ray film and an imaging plate（IP）detector. DentalSCOPE has a special X-ray beam indicator in which a special calcium carbonate reference object is embedded. Digitized X-ray film images and IP based digital X-ray images were input into the DentalSCOPE system.
DentalSCOPE software measures the image density of the reference object automatically and calculates the mineral density value of an arbitrary region of interest（ROI）. The mineral density of a rectangular ROI in the periapical region of mandibular premolars was evaluated. Then, the mineral density value of the same ROI was measured using the DEXA system.
Results: A high correlation coefficient（r＝0.929）was found between the IP detector based DentalSCOPE measurement and the DEXA measurement. The correlation coefficient between the X-ray film based DentalSCOPE measurement and DEXA measurement was high（r＝0.921）as well.
Conclusions: It was suggested that DentalSCOPE may be useful for evaluating the mineral density of alveolar bone.