Open Anatomy Project

The Open Anatomy Project is a free collection of web-based 3D anatomy atlases from the Surgical Planning Laboratory (SPL) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. It is meant for students, teachers, clinicians and researchers who want to explore labelled 3D anatomy built from real CT and MRI scans. There is no “OpenAnatomy Dental Atlas”: the project has never published a dental edition, a teeth atlas or a downloadable desktop program under that name.

If you came here looking for an open anatomy atlas for dentistry or a 3D dental atlas, the closest real resource is the project’s SPL Head and Neck Atlas, a CT-based atlas of the skull, mandible, upper ribs and spine with neck muscles, cartilage, blood vessels and glands. Its published description does not list teeth, nerves or the temporomandibular joint as separate structures, so it helps with head and neck orientation rather than dental anatomy. The atlases run in the browser; nothing needs to be installed.

Open Anatomy Project at a glance

What it does

• Seven published atlases – SPL/NAC Brain, SPL Head and Neck, SPL Inner Ear, SPL Liver, SPL Abdominal, SPL Knee and the Mauritanian Anatomy Laboratory Thoracic Atlas.
• Open Anatomy Browser – a WebGL viewer that shows a cross-sectional slice panel next to a 3D structure panel.
• Structure hierarchy – structures are organised in a text-based tree with breadcrumb links, and can be switched on and off individually or by whole branches.
• Image controls – window and level adjustment of the underlying CT or MRI slices.
• Bookmarks and shared sessions – views can be saved as bookmarks and exchanged, and groups can join a synchronised viewing session, which is useful in class.
• Atlas data – each atlas combines image data, label maps and 3D models of the labelled structures; the Head and Neck atlas uses a reduced-resolution (256×256) CT from the MANIX sample dataset. The atlases are produced with 3D Slicer, and the project also offers them as data archives.
• TA2Viewer – a companion web app that organises anatomical terms by Terminologia Anatomica 2.

How dental teams use it

Revise head and neck anatomy before oral surgery teaching

1. Open the SPL Head and Neck Atlas in a desktop browser.
2. Switch off the neck muscles in the structure tree to expose the skull and mandible, then turn muscles, vessels and glands back on one group at a time.
3. Compare each 3D structure with the CT slice panel to link the model to radiological appearance.

Run a shared session in a seminar

1. Set up a view (structures shown, camera angle) and save it as a bookmark.
2. Share the bookmark or start a shared view so students see the same scene on their own screens.

Build a dental model yourself

Because there is no teeth atlas, dental schools that need tooth-level 3D models usually segment their own anonymised CBCT scans. Free tools for that include 3D Slicer with extensions such as SlicerCMF, MITK and 3DimViewer; all can export surfaces as STL.

Install and first run

• Nothing to install: open the atlas list on openanatomy.org and choose an atlas; it loads in the browser.
• Use a current desktop or laptop browser – Chrome, Firefox or Safari. The project states the viewer is not suitable for mobile or tablet use.
• The viewer uses WebGL, so hardware graphics acceleration must be enabled in the browser.
• The browser is described by the project as a prototype, so occasional rough edges are expected.
• If you want to work with the atlas data in 3D Slicer rather than in the browser, use the data archive offered on the atlas page and check the licence terms first.

Limitations

• No dental atlas: no individual teeth, no dental nerves or periodontal structures in the published descriptions.
• Only seven atlases, and the newest is from November 2020; there is no sign of regular updates.
• The project itself calls the tools suitable for evaluation and discussion, not robust enough for rigorous use.
• Not for clinical use: the data are for education and research, and the licence says they have not been reviewed by the FDA.
• Desktop only; no offline app.

Open Anatomy vs alternatives

Open Anatomy is a reference atlas: you look at structures someone else has labelled. For dental anatomy at tooth level you need to create models from scans yourself. SlicerCMF (inside 3D Slicer) adds craniofacial measurement and registration tools; MITK offers manual and AI-assisted segmentation of CBCT with STL export; 3DimViewer is a simpler viewer with threshold segmentation, though no longer developed. None of these is a ready-made dental atlas either.

FAQ

Is there an Open Anatomy dental atlas?

No. The Open Anatomy Project lists brain, head and neck, inner ear, liver, abdominal, knee and thoracic atlases, but no dental or teeth atlas.

What is the Open Anatomy Atlas?

It is a set of free, web-based 3D anatomy atlases made at the Surgical Planning Laboratory of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, built from real CT and MRI scans with labelled structures.

Is Open Anatomy free and open source?

Yes, the atlases are free to use. The Head and Neck atlas is distributed under the BSD-style 3D Slicer licence, and the project says its technology is open source.

Is there a 3D dental atlas in Open Anatomy?

No. The Head and Neck atlas shows the skull and mandible in 3D, but teeth are not listed as separate structures.

Can I use Open Anatomy on an iPad or phone?

The project states the viewer is not suitable for mobile or tablet use; use a desktop or laptop browser.

Do I need to download a program?

No. The atlases open in the browser. There is no official Windows, macOS or Linux desktop application.

Last checked against official sources: 28 September 2026 (developer website: openanatomy.org). Versions and licence terms change — confirm on the developer's site before deploying in a clinic.