Aim: The present study was aimed to assess the transferability of occlusal plane (OP) orientation from the patient to the articulators with the help of two different facebow systems and evaluated with a gold standard.
Materials and methods: Twenty dentate patients were selected for the study. Two semi-adjustable arcon articulators that are Hanau Wide(®) Vue using SpringBow and Whip Mix(®) using quick-mount facebow were used in the study. Mean angle between OP to horizontal reference plane obtained from Hanau Wide Vue articulator system (SpringBow using Orbitale as anterior reference point) and Whip Mix articulator system (quickmount facebow using nasion as anterior reference point) was tabulated. These values obtained were further compared with each other and evaluated against cephalometric evidence, which was considered as the gold standard for the study. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, Scheffe post hoc analysis for group comparison, and level of significance (P) was calculated using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16 (IBM, New York, USA) software program.
Results: Intragroup comparison of mean angle OP values showed highly significant difference (p = 0.000). Comparison between Hanau Wide Vue articulator system and Whip Mix articulator system showed statistically highly significant with a mean difference of 10.51° with Hanau system values being lower than Whip Mix system. Difference between Hanau system and cephalometric values were statistically significant with a mean difference of 2.835° and Hanau system consistently recording lower values than cephalometric values. Difference between Whip Mix system and cephalometric values was also statistically significant with a mean difference of 7.680° with group 2 values were on average 7.680° higher than group 3.
Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, the Hanau system and Whip Mix system showed significant difference in reproduction of angle between OP and horizontal reference plane. Hanau articulator system showed closer values to that of cephalometric values in comparison with Whip Mix articulator system.
Clinical significance: Orientation of the maxillary cast in an articulator is a crucial part of several techniques used in dentistry. Orientation of maxillary cast in the articulator acts as a baseline from which further steps for occlusal rehabilitation of the patients are carried out. Recording and transferring of the occlusal cant to articulators require facebow.
Keywords: Arcon articulator; Cephalometric tracing; Facebow; Occlusal plane; Semi-adjustable articulator..