Bone Microarchitecture by Dentistry Digital X-Ray (BµA-DDX) Software: A Pilot Study of the Analysis of Bone Density using Digital Dental X-Rays

The Bone Microarchitecture by Dentistry Digital X-Ray (BµA-DDX) software was designed to determine jaw bone quality using digital dental X-rays. In order to identify patients with a suspicion of low bone density, a system was developed to evaluate bone microarchitecture through the analysis of samples collected in digital panoramic X-rays. The samples were collectedat two sites of the mandible: alveolar ridge near the mental foramen and mandibular angle beneath the mandibular canal, bilaterally. These samples were submitted to a sequence of image processing operations to measure trabecular bone density. A total of 115 digital panoramic X-rays, corresponding to 460 samples, were processed digitally for trabecular pixel counting. This count was used to identify cases of normal or abnormal bone density based on values established in their lower limit. In conclusion, the method developed permitted the evaluation of samples of the mandibular body and ramus, indicating cases of normal and abnormal bone density. However, readjustment of the software parameters using a new set of X-rays is necessary when the images were submitted to pre-processing or suffered changes in the X-ray emission source.