Construction and testing of a computer-based intraoral laser scanner for determining tooth positions

An optical set-up for intraoral data acquisition based on the principle of laser triangulation was developed. The system consists of a pig-tailed laser with line generating optics, a stepping motor driven positioning stage, a commercial CCD (charge coupled device) camera system with frame grabber interface, a control personal computer and a mirror system compensating for the fact that there is no possibility of watching an object directly in the mouth under a certain angle except from a facial position during intraoral scanning. Due to the size of the prototype measurements were still restricted to plaster casts. In order to evaluate its accuracy, the measurements were compared with those taken with a commercial laser scanner and a coordinate measurement table. The accuracy of the prototype scanner was determined to be ΔXYZ=0.04 mm using gauge blocks of given dimensions and proved to range between the commercial laser scanner and the coordinate measurement table (i.e., it was slightly better than that of the commercial scanner). Applications in orthodontics were demonstrated by scanning plaster casts and measuring distances on reconstructed surfaces. The measured distances showed a maximum deviation of about ±0.2 mm compared with the data of the coordinate measurement table, which served as a reference. In addition, reconstruction of three-dimensional tooth movements was performed on the scan data. The translational and rotational parameters gained from the superimposition of scanned point clouds and describing tooth movement were also in good accordance with the reference. The achieved accuracy proved to be sufficient for further development which should include a reduction in size and the use of more precise device components.