Patent ID: 6582931
Filing Date: 2003-06-24
Classification: A61C

Abstract:
A method of transferring patient dental-facial information to a dental articulator to facilitate the mounting of dental casts on the dental articulator, said method comprising the steps of:positioning an index tray in a patient's mouth and aligning the facial incisal edge of the patient's maxillary incisors to an incisal line marked on an upper surface of the tray, said tray having soft bite registration material on its upper surface for receiving impressions of the patient's maxillary teeth and registering the patient's plane of occlusion; instructing the patient to bite lightly into the registration material; adjusting the tray to a horizontal position with the patient sitting erect and looking straight ahead; carefully removing the index tray from the patient's mouth after the registration material has set with the tray in said horizontal position; and placing the index tray onto a horizontal mounting platform mounted on the lower frame of a dental articulator, with the mounting platform being centrally positioned from side-to-side and positioned between the upper and lower frames of the articulator, said articulator having supports defining a hinge axis, and said platform being positioned forwardly and downwardly from the hinge axis, the tray being positioned so that the tray incisal line is spaced a known distance from said axis, whereby the index tray is fixed on the mounting platform, in a known relationship corresponding to the patient's specific dental information or average values.