Presurgical virtual three-dimensional treatment planning

Aim: This article describes an experimental protocol designed to optimize surgical orthodontic diagnosis and treatment plan. Materials and Methods: In this study, 15 patients undergoing orthodontic-surgical treatment have been analyzed. The superimposition between models and respective presurgical setup for each group was performed. A best-fit algorithm was used to find the position of the arches in space for which the sum of the discrepancies was the shortest. A punctual variation colorimetric map indicating percentages of areas subjected to different discrepancies was used to evaluate the degree of congruence between the 2 models. Furthermore, for each arch the software provided metric values of maximum positive deviation, maximum negative deviation, mean deviation, and standard deviation that characterize the points compared in the superimposition. Results: For all the considered patients, the orthodontic preparation for surgery was obtained according to the splint guides and the orthodontic planning. Conclusion: The protocol described here allows high-precision planning of orthodontic-surgical therapy optimization of each treatment phase, with consequent advantages in clinical practice.