title: Tooth contacts and stability before and after occlusal adjustment.
abstract: A study was undertaken to analyze the possible relationship between the number and type of tooth contacts before, immediately after and 16 weeks after occlusal adjustment and their influence upon occlusal stability. The data collected from 10 adult subjects who required an occlusal adjustment indicated the following: 1. Six of the ten subjects had no clinically perceptible "slide from centric relation" 6 weeks after occlusal adjustment, and the number of teeth and number of contacts were virtually the same immediately after 6 weeks after occlusal adjustment. 2. The remaining four subjects, whose occlusions had relapsed after adjustment, had one dental arch that included a missing tooth. It would seem that dental arches interrupted with extraction spaces do not remain stable with occlusal adjustment alone. 3. The type of tooth contacts that are the most stable are those of a cup against a flat plane (e.g., bottom of a fossa or marginal ridge) or those of a combination of a cup against a flat plane and one or more inclined planes.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002012:Bruxism / Q000628:therapy; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D003767:Dental Occlusion, Balanced; D003768:Dental Occlusion, Centric; D003769:Dental Occlusion, Traumatic / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology