Development of a New Type of Incisal Table for Prosthetic Articulators

This study illustrates the effectiveness of an advanced incisal table surface, featuring adjustable curvature, in the sake of more accurate articulator kinematics in anterior teeth reconstruction. Prosthetic articulators, used by dental technicians in reconstructive dentistry, are adjustable instruments that simulate the motion of mastication between dental casts: usually, the forward motion (protrusion) of the mandible is guided by sliding a pin over a flat table in order to recreate those movements when incisal teeth are missing. However, such protrusion is an approximation of the exact motion, since flat incisal tables have a limited set of adjustments. Customized software has been developed in order to simulate the kinematics of articulators in three-dimensional space: animations and measures of the envelope of teeth profiles show the unfeasibility of reconstructing with good approximation the profile of incisive teeth, when a simple ‘flat' incisal table is used. A new incisal table with an adjustable curvature has been proposed, simulated, and built, and computer simulations demonstrated the superior precision of the new design when compared to a conventional articulator which uses a flat incisal table.