2006 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 31-37
This study investigated the relation between occlusal contacts and the main occluding area. The 18 unilateral posterior dental arches were examined. The subjects were instructed to bite a piece of dental stopping once freely where there was easy to bite. A trial was repeated five times. We confirmed the region, where biting of the stopping was concentrated, as the main occluding area. We examined the location of the main occluding area. We divided the subjects into two groups, that is, the group whose biting place of the stopping was corresponding in all of the five trials and the others. We compared the occlusal contacts and the difference of both groups was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. As a result, the following conclusions were obtained.
1. The main occluding area was located between upper and lower first molars in many cases.
2. The percentage of the contact area, which was located in the main occluding area, in the total occlusal contacts of the unilateral posterior teeth was 32.6% in the group whose biting place of the stopping was corresponding in all of the five trials. That of the other group was 16.3%.
3. It was suggested that the location of the occlusal contact points, which conducted occlusal force in the direction of the tooth root and brought physiological tooth movement during function, was required conditions for the main occluding area.
