Optimal Occlusion Of Teeth

Occlusion or centric occlusion (CO) is the relationship between the upper and lower teeth when an individual bites his teeth together and is affected by the alignment and spacing of the upper and lower teeth. Research has indicated that CO has certain implications on temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, and this usually leads to treatment such as complete denture reconstructions, TMJ therapy, orthodontics and facial pain treatment. In this paper, we attempt to develop a method of aligning the virtual dental cast models in CO so that one can study the CO intercuspal position (ICP). The method described here comprises two steps. First, we determine a good initial alignment using a plane detection strategy. Once the virtual dental models are in good initial alignment, we proceed to the second step of the alignment, which uses a collision detection strategy. The results obtained are within an error of 0.5mm which is acceptable for practical dental applications