Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to classify condylar dynamics to understand stomatognathic disorders and design effective treatments for functional occlusal disorders by considering comprehensive mandibular function. This assessment of categorizing of condylar movement in combination with frequency analyses will contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of functional occlusal disorders.
Methods: Lateral-border movements with/without tooth contact were recorded from a reference condylar position in 102 patients (30 males and 72 females; mean age, 41.5±15.9 years) by using the CADIAX®III (GAMMA, Klosterneuburg, Austria). After superimposing the two types of movement on both sagittal and horizontal planes, a trace of lateral movement with tooth contact was compared in terms of direction with the trace of the lateral movement without tooth contact. The area in the sagittal view was then classified into the following four categories: no-shift, upward shift, downward shift, and rearward shift. We obtained 10 grinding shift (GS) patterns by combining the four area categories of each condylar movement.
Results: The data set of condylar movements—a total of 204 sides of the 102 patients—permitted us to classify the pattern of each subject into 1 of the 10 GS patterns.
Conclusion: Since the GS patterns provided an active image of mandibular behavior during grinding movement, this newly developed classification is expected to improve the diagnosis of stomatognathic disorders.
