title: The history of articulators: the "Articulator Wars" phenomenon with some circumstances leading up to it.
abstract: At the dawn of the 20th century, all was not well with the practice of "plate prostheses." Removable prosthodontics had been degrading for several decades and was now generally in low esteem, even though there had been many significant advances. W. E. Walker had introduced adjustable condylar guides, George Snow, the facebow, and Carl Christensen, a method for clinically measuring the condylar inclines. Nevertheless, the average practicing dentist was still using simple hinge articulators and was apathetic to the deplorable state of the artificial teeth available; however, this was all going to change dramatically when two dentists, Alfred Gysi and J. Leon Williams, working together between 1910 and 1914, presented to the profession the "Trubyte Artificial Tooth System" that embodied both a typal system for selecting anterior teeth and new posterior occlusal carvings that made possible, for the first time, the articulation of artificial teeth. This incited many of prosthetic dentistry's elite to introduce their own theories of mandibular movement and the articulators that they designed to reflect those theories. The intense debates that ensued, both in the meeting halls and in the literature, were numerous and lasted for decades. At the time, the "Articulator Wars" had both positive and negative consequences. Today, with many of the "Articulator Wars" issues remaining as part of the practice of dentistry, the "Articulator Wars" can be considered a phenomenon of enlightenment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, University of Texas Houston Health Science Center - Dental Branch, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Edgar.N.Starcke@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Edgar N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Starcke
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Engelmeier
authors.forename: Donald M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Belles
mesh_terms: D003725:Dental Articulators / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D014481:United States