Practical analysis of occlusal procedures

Abstract

1. A practical analysis of occlusal procedures includes consideration for the condition of the stomatognathic system that requires treatment, the objectives of that treatment, the essential relationships and records, and provisions for dentistlaboratory cooperation. 2. The stomatognathic system that requires prosthetic treatment has a deteriorated dental occlusion with abnormal relationships and movements of the temporomandibular joints and mandible. The centric occlusion and the interocclusal distance are habitual adaptations to the convenience of the deteriorated occlusion for mastication and speech. 3. The objectives of prosthetic treatment are to rehabilitate the stomatognathic system in accordance with the criteria of normality, and not to fit a normal dentition to a deteriorated stomatognathic system. 4. The essential records include those of the relationships of the patient's maxillae, mandible, and interocclusal distance with the central, vertical, and horizontal lines of his face and the temporomandibular joints. Instruments and methods are suggested which will simplify the recording of these relationships and transfer the records to the laboratory where they are used without danger of distortion. 5. The accurate reproduction of the patient's relationships on the articulator enables the technician to view the conditions on the articulator in the same way as the dentist sees the patient, and it provides for the location and form of the arrangement of the teeth to conform with the esthetics of the face and in an occlusion in harmony with the temporomandibular joints.