CMDME (curved mesh diagram of mandibular excursion) method for visualization and diagnosis of mandibular movement

The CMDME (curved mesh diagram of mandibular excursion) method was developed for easy visualization and diagnosis of mandibular movement. This method uses measured mandibular movement to produce a diagram of the range, shape, and inclination of mandibular excursion in three dimensions using any arbitrary landmark of the mandible. First, the mandibular movement of a subject was measured by an opto-electronic movement analysis system capable of measuring mandibular movement with six degrees-of-freedom at a sampling frequency of 100 Hz. For the measurement, the subject was initially instructed to perform four repetitions of mandibular excursion at will, with tooth contact, each lasting 30 s. A total of 12 000 positions of the mandible were thus obtained. Secondly, an attempt was made to match these positions to intersection points (0.1 mm apart) of a CMDME (i.e. mesh) for arbitrary mandibular landmarks with intercuspal position at the origin. The CMDME method can visualize mandibular excursion, and can be used to compare several landmarks, different subjects, or different times. This makes this method an effective diagnostic tool for mandibular movement.