A Study to Compare and Adjust the Number of Occlusal Contacts in a Provisional Restoration in Centric Occlusion Using a Virtual Articulator and Functionally Generated Path Technique

Aim and Objective: The present study was done with the aim to compare and adjust the number of occlusal contacts of provisional restoration in centric occlusion using a virtual articulator and functionally generated path technique(FGP). objectives of this study were;1) To assess the number of occlusal contacts of a provisional restoration prepared on a virtual articulator and using FGP technique separately, 2)To compare the number of occlusal contacts of provisional crown fabricated by using virtual articulator and FGP technique. 3)To compare the number of adjustments required to equalise the contacts in provisional restoration made by using virtual articulator and FGP technique in centric occlusion.

Materials and Methods: The study involved Ten patients requiring complete veneers on lower first molars, were selected and given two provisional restorations one fabricated using functionally generated pathway and the other using a virtual articulator.

Results: The mean number of occlusal contacts in FGP at centric after the first four adjustments were 3.9, 5.4, 5.0, 6.6 respectively. The mean number of occlusal contacts in the prosthesis fabricated using virtual articulator at centric after the first four adjustments were 7.0, 9.7, 9.2, 10 respectively. The mean number of occlusal corrections made in FGP at centric was 6.4 and the mean value of occlusal corrections in virtual articulator at centric was 2.7. The mean value of number of occlusal contacts in prosthesis fabricated using FGP technique at eccentric after the first two adjustments were 4.6 and 4.7 respectively where as in the prosthesis fabricated using virtual articulator was 4.4 and 5.3 respectively. The number of occlusal contacts were marginally more in the prosthesis fabricated using virtual articulator than from the prosthesis fabricated using FGP. The mean value of occlusal corrections in FGP at eccentric was 2.7 whereas the mean value of number of occlusal corrections in a prosthesis using a virtual articulator was 1.9. The number of occlusal adjustments in virtual articulator was less in both centric and eccentric than that of FGP proposed by Meyers.

Conclusion: The present study shows that virtual articulator has been deemed better in terms of both patient compliance as well as operator’s ease in delivering of the prosthesis.