Mandibular cortical width measurement in an orthopantogram for osteoporosis prediction

Osteoporosis is the systemic bone disease that is characterized by a generalized reduction of bone mass. It is main cause of fractures in elderly women. The panoramic radiographs are most widely used in the field of dentistry with a low radiation dose and are relatively inexpensive. So it is very useful for early detection of osteoporosis. Orthopantogram shows the entire mandible. The mineral content of cortical bone in the mandible is likely to be related to the mineral content of the skeleton. The person having osteoporosis has mandible with low mineral content. To identify person with osteoporosis we measured cortical thickness in the region of interest of the mandible. This paper describes method for cortical width measured by using orthopantogram, which includes preprocessing of orthopantogram and width measurement.