[Models of automated mandibular kinematics in the Kennedy Class I partial edentate]

The biunivocal relationships which exist between the elements and the functions of the dento-maxillary apparatus are also found in the determination and the effects of automated mandibulary movements in patients with class I edentation. Kinesiographic mandibulary analysis correlated with clinical observations certain characteristics can be identified of which the most evident, resulting from the edentation, and at the same time the most important from the viewpoint of dysfunctional implications is the almost permanent presence of horizontal, mainly sagittal movements of the teeth and of the temporo-mandibulary articulation. Propulsion of the mandibula in this way is at the origin of many irritative foci: in the frontal teeth that have to transmit and to take up the forces which have unfavourable directions; the muscles, especially the external pterygoidal muscles that are overstressed; the temporo-mandibulary articulation where the unfunctional relationship between the mandibular condyl, the articular disk, and the articular eminence will acquire an almost permanent character. The consolidation of the propulsed (mesial) position of the mandibula by prosthetic treatment in this position cannot have but negative effects for the elements of the dento-maxillary apparatus.