Effectiveness of a New Broadrick Flag Support for Assisting Students With the Design of an Occlusal Plane

Prosthetic restorations require functional occlusal planes to ensure therapeutic success. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new Broadrick flag support for a semi-adjustable articulator and to investigate the effectiveness of occlusal planes drawn using the Broadrick flag method by inexperienced practitioners in complex situations such as skeletal class II relationships associated with edentulous areas. MÉTHODOLOGY: The Broadrick flag support was designed and manufactured by the additive technique and was adapted to the Quick Master articulator. The QR code of the manufacturing file of the Broadrick flag support is accessible to any practitioner. Thirty-seven third-year students (inexperienced practitioners) were randomised into two groups for drawing occlusal planes on two models either with or without the Broadrick flag method. A prosthodontic professor (experienced practitioner) drew occlusal planes on the models to serve as references. Each model was analysed using a standardised method to measure the distances between the occlusal planes drawn by experienced and inexperienced practitioners. RÉSULTS: Only the distance measured for the right second molar of the first model with the Broadrick flag method was significantly shorter than those measured without using this method (p < 0.05, Wilcoxon test). Visual observations showed that only the second molar drawings of the inexperienced practitioners were above the drawings of the experienced practitioner.

The Broadrick flag method helped inexperienced practitioners to draw occlusal planes of models in complex skeletal class II relationships associated with edentulous areas with natural teeth located both anterior and posterior to them.