Articulador Virtual

International Congress Series 1230 (2001) 689 – 694

The virtual articulator—concept and development
of VR-tools to analyse the dysfunction
of dental occlusion
B. Korda ß*, Ch. Gartner
¨
Policlinic of Prosthetic Dentistry and Dental Materials, Department of Preclinic Dental Education and
Community Dentistry, Center of Dentistry, Rotgerberstr. 8, 17487 Greifswald, Germany

AbstractVirtual Reality (VR) technology is one of the most important innovations for research,
development and industrial production. In dentistry, VR technology will be useful to provide better
education by simulation as well as to enhance working procedures that conventionally are limited,
e.g. the mechanical articulator. It is the purpose of this paper to present concepts and strategies for a
futurereplacement of the mechanical articulator by a virtual one. This virtual articulator will
significantly reduce the limitations of the mechanical articulator, and by simulation of real patient
data, allow analyses with regard to static and dynamic occlusion as well as to jaw relation. The main
topics areErrorimplementing the virtual articulator with digitized models of the lower and upper jaw,Errormatching of computer-aided registrations of jaw movements with jaw models, Errorvisualization of unusual views upon dynamic patterns of occlusion, Errorreduction of errors concerning the
available materials to mount casts in correct relationship and orientation. D 2001 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The future of the dentistry is basically connected with theuse of computer technology.
Only if qualified dentists and dental technologists succeed in computer technology,
dentistry, in a global sense, can follow the general processes in the direction of networking
knowledge- and information-society. To optimize networking communication and

*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-3834-867-162; fax: +49-3834-887-148.
E-mail address:kordass@uni-greifswald.de (B. Korda ß).

0531-5131/01/$ – see front matter D 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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B. Kordaß, Ch. Gartner / International Congress Series 1230 (2001) 689 – 694
¨

human – machine interface, one of the most important innovations for research, development and industrial production is Virtual Reality (VR) technology.In dentistry, VR
technology will be useful to provide better education by simulation as well as to enhance
working procedures that conventionally are limited, as to the case of the mechanical
articulator. Moreover, the diagnosis of dysfunction and dysmorphology requires advance
skills with regard to the needs of optimizing the occlusal conditions. Improved clinical
outcome can be accomplishedby supporting the dentists’ decision with computer-aided
tools available in extension as a ‘virtual articulator’. Focussing on the dependencies
between dysfunction and dysmorphology, the advantages and clinical consequences using
such tools are discussed below.
1.1. Need of VR articulator
Commonly, the functional simulation of the effects of dysmorphology and dysocclusion
belongs to the taskof adjusting a mechanical articulator. The mechanical environment,
however, has many problems in simulating the variability of biological aspects. The
dynamic conditions of jaw movements and the dependent aspects are, for example,


the complexity of the movement pattern. (In opposite to the time-dependent, muscleguided movement pattern of chewing, the movements of the mechanicalarticulator
follows border structures of the mechanical joint which can never represent the
effects of resilience of the soft tissue resp. the articular disc.),
 the mobility of the teeth which can never be simulated when using plaster casts in
the articulator,
 the distortion and deformation of the mandible during loading conditions. (In the
maximal opening position, the mandible bends innerside;...