Construction of a novel digital method for quantitative analysis of occlusal contact and force

Abstract Background Occlusal analysis is essential in the dental clinical practice. However, the traditional occlusal analysis performed on the two-dimensional level can not directly correspond to the tooth surface with three-dimensional profile, therefore the clinical guidance value is limited. Methods By combining the 3D digital dental models and quantitative data from 2D occlusal contact analysis, this study constructed a novel digital occlusal analysis method. The validity and reliability of DP and SA were verified by comparing the results of occlusal analysis of 22 participants. ICC values for occlusal contact area (OCA) and occlusal contact number (OCN) were tested. Results Results confirmed the reliability of the two occlusal analysis methods with ICC values of 0.909 for SAOCA, 0.906 for DPOCA, 0.929 for SAOCN and 0.904 for DPOCN. The Bland-Altman plot, paired t-test (tOCN = 0.691, P > 0.05) and Pearson correlation analysis results (R = 0.68, p