INTRAORAL SCANNING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION ULTRASONIC SCAN AND 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF TOOTH REGION

摘要

The invention relates to an intraoral scanning device (1) for recording ultrasound scan data in the mouth of the patient, the device comprising: a housing (2) having a proximal portion (4) and a distal portion (6), the distal portion (6) being adapted for placement within the patients mouth; a high frequency sonic head (20) comprising at least one transducer (36) for scanning a covered or non-covered tooth region (90) or residual tooth region (92) and mounted within the distal portion (6) of the housing (2), and means for applying excitation signals to the sonic head (20) in order thereby to produce an ultrasonic wave which passes over at least part of the tooth region (90) or residual tooth region (92) such that the sonic head (20) receives ultrasonic waves reflected by the tooth region (90) or residual tooth region (92) to be scanned. The sonic head (20) is movable at least in a first and a second degree of freedom, and by a drive assembly (22) arranged within the proximal portion (4) of the housing (2) for driving the sonic head (20) in the first and second degree of freedom such that the sonic head (20) is movable in a plane for applying the ultrasonic wave to a pre-determined region of the tooth region or residual tooth region.