Presence Of Contacts Research Articles

Tilting movements of teeth during biting

A method has been described for the detection of tilting movements of teeth using wire resistance strain gauges. Sixty teeth, cheek teeth and upper central incisors, were tested in ten subjects with full dental arches and firm approximal contacts. Fifty-five teeth tilted mesially under a load of 2 kg for incisors and 5 kg for cheek teeth. All cheek teeth anterior to the stressed tooth tilted mesially. This serial tilting effect spread to eighteen of the twenty central incisors. The presence of contacts between adjacent teeth was found to be necessary for this effect. Very little movement was produced on distal teeth when force was applied to anterior teeth. The relation between these findings and the cause of mesial drift is considered.