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Position of Occlusal Plane in Dentate Patients with Reference to the Ala-Tragal Line Using a Custom-Made Occlusal
Sanath Shetty1, Nazia Majeed Zargar2, Kamalakanth Shenoy1
1Department of Prosthodontics, Yenepoya Dental College, Mangalore, India.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to determine which of the three positions on the tragus, (superior, middle, inferior) when joined with the ala of the nose for the ala-tragal line was most parallel to the natural occlusal plane in dentate patients.
Material And Methods:
This study was carried out on 500 individuals, selected randomly and who agreed to participate in the study. A custom-made occlusal plane analyzer was used to check the parallelism between the ala-tragal line and the occlusal plane. The tragus was divided into three parts: superior, middle, and inferior. The instrument was placed in the participant's mouth, and the posterior points on the tragus were determined.
Results:
For the 500 dentate participants in this study, the most common location of the posterior point on the tragus was the inferior part of the tragus (50.8%). The second most common location of the tragus was the middle part (24.7%), followed by the superior location (12.1%).
Conclusion:
The results of this study indicated that the occlusal plane was found parallel to a line joining the ala of the nose and the inferior part of the tragus in a slight majority of the participants.
