Optimal Use of Physical Centric Relation Records for Digital Workflows

Area of Science:

• Dentistry
• Biomedical Engineering
• Digital Health

Background:

• Accurate dental cast articulation is crucial for effective dental treatment planning and execution.
• Traditional articulation methods rely on physical articulators and centric relation records.
• Emerging digital and virtual techniques offer potential improvements in precision and efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the precision of virtual articulation with traditional physical articulation methods.
• To quantify differences in occlusal separation between the two articulation techniques.

Main Methods:

• Dental casts were articulated using both traditional physical methods and a virtual, software-based approach.
• Measurements of inter-arch separation at key points were taken for both methods.
• Statistical analysis was performed to determine significant differences in precision (p<0.05).

Main Results:

• Virtual articulation achieved a mean standard deviation of 0.059mm, while traditional articulation had a standard deviation up to 0.102mm.
• Statistically significant differences were observed in anteroposterior and some lateral/vertical separations between the methods.
• Virtual articulation proved to be significantly more precise than traditional articulation.

Conclusions:

• Virtual articulation using 3D scanning and software offers superior precision compared to traditional physical articulation.
• This digital workflow may enhance the accuracy of dental restorations and treatments.
• Further research into digital workflows for dental articulation is warranted.