Is there a benefit of using an arbitrary facebow for the fabrication of a stabilization appliance?
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate if an arbitrary facebow registration and transfer provides significant advantages for the fabrication of an occlusal appliance in comparison with the omission of such a procedure.


METHODS
For 20 fully dentate adult patients diagnosed with bruxism, two Michigan occlusal splints were constructed. One of the two upper dental casts was transferred to the articulator with an arbitrary earpiece facebow; the other maxillary cast was mounted arbitrarily using a flat occlusal plane indicator. Upon splint delivery, the number of intraoral occlusal contacts and the time needed for chairside occlusal adjustment were recorded.


RESULTS
The number of occlusal contacts on the appliance fabricated with or without facebow was similar in most cases both in the articulator and in the mouth. The one-sided Wilcoxon rank sum test showed with high probability that the use of an arbitrary facebow does not yield a clinically relevant improvement with regard to the number of occlusal contacts or the chairside adjustment time.


CONCLUSIONS
From this pilot study, it appears that for the fabrication of an occlusal appliance, registration and transfer with an arbitrary earpiece facebow does not yield clinically relevant benefits. Of course, this conclusion cannot be transferred to other facebows and is restricted to the levels of clinical relevance defined in the study.
Shodadai
S P
SP
Department of Prosthodontics, Dental School, Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.
Türp
J C
JC
Gerds
T
T
Strub
J R
JR
D000328:Adult; D002012:Bruxism / Q000628:therapy; D016302:Centric Relation; D003725:Dental Articulators; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D003768:Dental Occlusion, Centric; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007574:Jaw Relation Record / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D008335:Mandibular Condyle / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003765:Models, Dental; D019558:Occlusal Adjustment; D017090:Occlusal Splints; D016382:Orthodontic Appliance Design; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011336:Probability; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors