THE USE OF REPLICATE RESIN MODELS IN THE TREATMENT OF MAXILLARY SINUSAUGMENTATION PATIENTS

The elevation of the floor of the maxillary sinus is becoming a routin e surgical procedure to develop the site for dental implants, This del icate procedure is best performed with diagnostics of the highest magn itude. To this point computer tomographic scans provide valuable infor mation, especially when defining the location and extension of septae transversing the sinus. Additional useful information is provided by a replicate resin model that is constructed from a magneto-optical disk compatible with a personal computer. The image data is then converted to a DOS format. Bone structures of interest are thresholded in each slice based on single-pixel gray levels. Object profiles with linear i nterpolation and their elaboration generate the three-dimensional surf ace of the object. Finally, the physical resin model is fabricated.