IJAM, Volume 27, No. 4 (2014)

Abstract. The dental radiography is one of the most useful dental exams performed by dentists and coroners, as it allows the identification of structures which are not revealed on the surfaces of the teeth. However, the gum, and the jaw, chest and clavicle bones may interfere in the exams, since in some cases, their shades can get confused with the roots of the teeth, making in difficult to identify their boundaries. Therefore, this article proposes a method for the treatment of panoramic dental radiography images, helpful for both dentists and coroners. The proposed method highlights and segments dental structures present in digitized panoramic radiography images. The method is based on using the average and the standard deviation for the highlighting, and Mathematical Morphology for the segmentation. This article presents the results achieved by applying this method. The method presented by this article helps dentists, by highlighting the dental structures present in panoramic radiographies of the mouth, and coroners, by helping in the process of individuals identification through the dental arch.