# TCATSeg: A Tooth Center-Wise Attention Network for 3D Dental Model Semantic Segmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16620 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16620/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 24 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02413/) (2017)
- [Dynamic Graph CNN for Learning on Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07829/) (2018)
- [Point Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00931/) (2020)
- [PointASNL: Robust Point Clouds Processing using Nonlocal Neural Networks with Adaptive Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.00492/) (2020)
- [Superpoint Transformer for 3D Scene Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.15766/) (2022)
- [PointMixer: MLP-Mixer for Point Cloud Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11187/) (2021)
- [Self-positioning Point-based Transformer for Point Cloud Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16450/) (2023)
- [Cloud Transformers: A Universal Approach To Point Cloud Processing Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11679/) (2020)
- [Two-Stage Mesh Deep Learning for Automated Tooth Segmentation and Landmark Localization on 3D Intraoral Scans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.11941/) (2021)
- [LCPFormer: Towards Effective 3D Point Cloud Analysis via Local Context Propagation in Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.12755/) (2022)
- [TSGCNet: Discriminative Geometric Feature Learning with Two-Stream GraphConvolutional Network for 3D Dental Model Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.13697/) (2020)
- [3DTeethSeg'22: 3D Teeth Scan Segmentation and Labeling Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18277/) (2023)
- [TSegFormer: 3D Tooth Segmentation in Intraoral Scans with Geometry Guided Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13234/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate semantic segmentation of 3D dental models is essential for digital dentistry applications such as orthodontics and dental implants. However, due to complex tooth arrangements and similarities in shape among adjacent teeth, existing methods struggle with accurate segmentation, because they often focus on local geometry while neglecting global contextual information. To address this, we propose TCATSeg, a novel framework that combines local geometric features with global semantic context. We introduce a set of sparse yet physically meaningful superpoints to capture global semantic relationships and enhance segmentation accuracy. Additionally, we present a new dataset of 400 dental models, including pre-orthodontic samples, to evaluate the generalization of our method. Extensive experiments demonstrate that TCATSeg outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.