Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mandibular reconstruction following continuity resection due to tumor ablation or osteonecrosis remains a significant challenge in maxillofacial surgery. Virtual surgical planning (VSP) relies on accurate segmentation of the mandible, yet existing AI models typically include teeth, making them unsuitable for planning of autologous transplants dimensions aiming for reconstructing edentulous mandibles optimized for dental implant insertion. This study investigates the feasibility of using deep learning-based segmentation to generate anatomically valid, toothless mandibles from dentate CT scans, ensuring geometric accuracy for reconstructive planning. METHODS: A two-stage convolutional neural network (CNN) approach was employed to segment mandibles from computed tomography (CT) data. The dataset (n = 246) included dentate, partially dentate, and edentulous mandibles. Ground truth segmentations were manually modified to create Class III (moderate alveolar atrophy) and Class V (severe atrophy) models, representing different degrees of post-extraction bone resorption. The AI models were trained on the original (O), Class III (Cl. III), and Class V (Cl. V) datasets, and performance was evaluated using Dice similarity coefficients (DSC), average surface distance, and automatically detected anatomical curvatures. RESULTS: AI-generated segmentations demonstrated high anatomical accuracy across all models, with mean DSCs exceeding 0.94. Accuracy was highest in edentulous mandibles (DSC 0.96 ± 0.014) and slightly lower in fully dentate cases, particularly for Class V modifications (DSC 0.936 ± 0.030). The caudolateral curve remained consistent, confirming that baseline mandibular geometry was preserved despite alveolar ridge modifications. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms that AI-driven segmentation can generate anatomically valid edentulous mandibles from dentate CT scans with high accuracy. The innovation of the work is the precise adaptation of alveolar ridge geometry, making it a valuable tool for patient-specific virtual surgical planning in mandibular reconstruction.