Validation of a technique for integration of a digital dental model into stereophotogrammetric images of the face using cone-beam computed tomographic data.

We wanted to find and validate a new way to visualise patients' faces and their dental arches non-invasively. The stereophotogrammetric images of the faces and the digitised dental casts of seven healthy subjects were analysed. Point-based and surface-based recording techniques matched the facial image with those of the mandibular and maxillary dental arches in their relative positions. The cone-beam computed tomographic (CT) images of the same subjects were analysed retrospectively. Twenty-eight dentofacial distances were obtained on cone-beam CT images and on the recorded facial and dental surfaces. The median (IQR) distances of more than 96% of the measurements did not differ significantly.