All Articles in Occlusion & Wear

You Got ME!

This 58-year-old male recently came into my practice for a restorative evaluation. He has a history of nocturnal bruxism and also has evidence of some erosive process that is affecting the facial surfaces of his teeth. If you note where … Read more

Setting Condylar Inclination on the SAM Articulator

Sigh … Where are the easy ones? Part 2

You saw this 55-year-old patient in my last blog, so you know that she has a deteriorating joint on the left side as well as severely periodontally involved teeth under the existing bridge. We know that the joint may not … Read more

Sigh … Where are the easy ones? Part 1

It has been said that there are no easy cases, and I think that I believe it after the run of new patients I’ve had the past six months. So, once again, I am turning to all of you to … Read more

Now, this is interesting!

This patient was referred to me by a local periodontist for a restorative consultation. He had recently moved to Scottsdale from another city. He told me that he had recently completed orthodontic treatment and was ready for his crowns and … Read more

Resetting the Condylar Inclination

The condylar inclination setting on the SAM articulator system is an easily repeatable task – unless the patient’s plane of occlusion relative to the condylar element places the indicator off of the scale. The condylar inclination scale is the radial … Read more

Wax-ups are for Dentists (so are articulators)

This is a beautiful wax-up, isn’t it? I never got to do the case. That wax-up is stored in a box someplace, most likely never to be retrieved. The patient had the work done in another practice and paid a … Read more

“TAP-TAP”

In the middle of the equilibration – the lateral guidance is still on the posteriors, especially the first premolars. Isn’t it interesting that the only areas pitted through the enamel and showing dentin erosion are the buccal cusp tips of … Read more

Decisions! Decisions! Part III

So we’ve mentioned this patient previously in Part I and Part II of this blog series. Here’s where we are now… We know that we can’t add incisal length, so our choices are either intrusion or crown lengthening. The challenge … Read more

Decisions! Decisions! Part II

We talked a little bit about this patient in last week’s post. Here is more data. We know that about 3% of the adults who undergo orthodontic treatment will have severe root resorption. We also know that 100% of all … Read more