Augmented reality assisted endodontics: an experimental setup study
Anıl Özgün Karatekin, Nimet Gençoğlu · International Dental Journal · 2024
The aim of this study is to evaluate the usability of a medical Augmented-Reality(AR) application on 3D-printed tooth with C3-C1 root canal morphology for testing virtual root canal orifice locating guide design. An iOS (Apple,Cupertino,USA) medical AR viewer and virtual protractor freeware,'AR-Puncture' (Satoru Morita,Tokyo Women's Medical University),was utilized alongside an Apple-2021-iPad 9th-Gen for experimentation. A 3D-printed resin molar tooth with C3-C1 root canal morphology was embedded in a paraffin block for stabilisation.Virtual straight-line paths to the center of the root canal orifices were created using Paint-3D and 3D-Builder(Microsoft), final 3D-design was converted to.obj format and uploaded to iCloud server for importing 3D-object data to 'AR-Puncture'.The alignment of imported 3D-design including virtual paths to the root canal orifices with the physical 3D-printed tooth was done manually using a 3-point method. Software's ability for guiding root canal file insertion was visually assessed in coronal and sagittal views. The hardware's macro focusing limitations within a typical clinical working distance suggest its possible potential for preclinical basic simulations, pending significant algorithm and user interface advancements. However, current software's static occlusion depth algorithm lacks precision in simulating guide paths to mesial systems due to overlapping canals in the spatial environment and lack of dynamic occlusion-depth algorithm(DOA). Implementing a DOA is essential for educational or in-vivo Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality(AR/VR) applications. Considering the naturally small size of teeth,the macro capability of the hardware's camera is crucial. Therefore, the findings of this preliminary study underline the necessity for further research to adapt AR/MR-technologies to the field of endodontics.