Haslina Taib

The effect of sharp contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (SCLAHE) on Intra-oral dental radiograph images

Radiographic interpretation is crucial for the excellence of quality patient care. Image enhancements can contribute to better image that allow the clinician to derive the optimum amount of information from the radiographic data. However, the degree of enhancement applied to the original image can produce distortions that will lead to misinterpretation. This research presents the effect of Intra-oral dental x-ray images before and after processing with sharp contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (SCLAHE) in order to detect the effectiveness of this option on diagnostic ability. In this study 10 intra-oral periapical dental x-ray images (4 upper jaw molar and 6 lower jaw molar) were evaluated by six dentists and were scored from 1 – 5 for the overall image quality based on their perception of the image quality and the presence of the tooth pathologies. Results show that SCLAHE have the positive effect on providing better information for dentists.

Variations of Adaptive Histogram Equalization (AHE) analysis on intra-oral dental radiograph

Medical images, such as dental radiographs, suffer of low contrasts and noise which make it difficult to identify disease characteristics. This work utilizes the variation of Adaptive Histogram Equalization (AHE) towards enhancing the intra-oral dental radiograph. The algorithms used are AHE, Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), Sharpening Adaptive Histogram, Equalization (SAHE), Sharpening Median Adaptive Histogram Equalization (SMAHE) and Sharpening Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram equalization (SCLAHE). These image enhancement algorithms variation are aim to test the noise, blurring and low contrast factors of the intra-oral dental image. The characteristic of the original and enhanced images are compared using image histogram. Results show that histogram of SCLAHE is the closest towards mimicking the original image histogram but with better pixel distribution, thus make the image visually clearer. The performance among the enhanced images is further compared using Contrast Improvement Index (CII), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Results show that SCLAHE able to get the highest SNR, but the lowest CII and RMSE.

The Performance of Compound Enhancement Algorithm on Abnormality Detection Analysis of Intra-oral Dental Radiograph Images

Dentists look for abnormality in radiograph for determining any diseases that may appear at the apices of the teeth. However poor quality of the radiograph produces weak visual signal that may produce misleading interpretations. Hence the quality of radiograph influence dentists’ decision that reflects the success or failure of any suggested treatments. Thus this work aim to analyze the abnormality found in intra-oral dental radiographs by comparing the original images with images that had been enhanced using compound enhancement algorithms (CEA) namely Sharp Adaptive Histogram Equalization (SAHE) and Sharp Contrast adaptive histogram equalization (SCLAHE). Results show that SCLAHE enhanced images provide slight improvement, compared to the original images, in detecting widen periodontal ligament space abnormality

Sharpening based image enhancement algorithms in reducing the disagreement of medical images subjective evaluation

Subjective evaluation of the abnormalities in dental images faces a few challenges such as low contrast. The problem arises due to the fix regulation of small X-ray dosage. Thus there are applications of image enhancement on the dental images and it is an acceptable technique to improve image quality and better diagnosis. Low contrast images could hinder the subjective evaluation and contribute to disagreement between the evaluators. This work investigates the performance of original and enhanced dental images towards the disagreement issues of evaluating image quality and detecting dental abnormalities. The abnormalities of interest are periapical radiolucency (PA), widen periodontal ligament space (widen PDLs) and loss of lamina dura (Loss of LD). The work begins with collecting the raw intra-oral dental images. Then sharpening based contrast image enhancement algorithms were applied to the images. After that, the images were evaluated by dentists towards the image quality and the abnormalities mentioned. The disagreements among the evaluators were determined using standard deviation formula. Results show that disagreement issue among the evaluators do exists to the extent of above 90%. Comparing to the original images show that enhanced images are able to slightly reduced the subjective evaluation disagreement in image quality and abnormalities.

In-vitro antimicrobial effectiveness of herbal-based mouthrinses against oral microorganisms

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial effectiveness of commercial herbal-based mouthrinses against oral microorganisms. Methods A total of three mouthrinses (OX, Pesona and Watsons) were tested for their antimicrobial activity against six oral organisms, Streptococcus mutans ( S. mutans ), Streptococcus sobrinus ( S. sobrinus ), Lactobacillus salivarius ( L. salivarius ), Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ), Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) and Candida albicans ( C. albicans ) by standard agar-disk diffusion assay. Oradex mouthrinse containing 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate and sterile distilled water was served as positive and negative controls, respectively. Results All mouthrinse formulations were effective in inhibiting the growth of S. mutans, S. sobrinus, L. salivarius and C. albicans . Among the tested mouthrinses, Pesona was the only effective mouthrinse against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa , similar to Oradex mouthrinse. Pesona mouthrinse formulation appears to be as effective as Oradex mouthrinse formulation to kill S. aureus and P. aeruginosa . Statistical analysis showed no significant difference among the tested formulations regarding their antimicrobial activities ( P > 0.05). Conclusions Pesona was not the only herbal mouthrinse effective in inhibiting the growth of S. mutans, S. sobrinus, L. salivarius and C. albicans in vitro . All tested formulations were effective against those strains. Our findings may serve as a guide for selecting a kind of herbal mouthrinses as well as providing information to the dental professionals about the efficacy of these products.