The Dental Facebow
What is The Dental Facebow?
- The Dental Facebow – is used to record the spatial relationship of the maxilla (upper jaw) to anatomic references on the cranium and transfer this relationship to an articulator; to help aid in the construction of dentures.
- Often times for diagnostic purposes dental models of teeth (casts) should be related on an anatomically appropriate articulator to best understand the role of occlusion that may help in the design and functional stability dentures. This becomes increasing important when a prosthesis replaces more teeth. In some instances this may not be necessary and simple hand articulation may be all that is indicated. However, when the natural dentition is not harmonious and/or when the replacement teeth must be positioned within the normal movement patterns of the jaws, the diagnostics casts must be related in an anatomically appropriate manner for diagnosis.
The Dental Facebow
- Thus the maxillary cast must be in a position relative to the opening axis on the articulator, which is similar to the maxilla’s position to the jaw joint.
- To allow for this transfer, a device called a facebow is used to transfer the anatomical relationships of the maxillary to the articulator.
- For the facebow to be accurate it must have three reference points, thus the two external auditory meatuses are used + a point below the infraorbital notch. Once these points have been set, a bite fork is used to determine the level of the maxillary occlusal plan. After these reference points are determined the facebow is locked in the various positions and removed from the patient’s mouth. It is then clean and ready for transfer to the articulator. Once these have been determined, one is able to set-up the diagnostics casts on the articulator in a simulated fashion to the patients mouth. It is beneficial when determined occlusal relationships + manufacturing the RPD.
- There are many different facebow’s on the market; a common brand is the Hanau.
- The reference is established by the hinge axis of the condyles and a selected anterior reference point
- Types of facebows – Kinematic + arbitrary
If you wish for more information on the dental facebow please do not hesitate to contact Skygate Dental today on (07) 3114 1199 or 0406 579 197.