Denture mobility with six degrees of freedom during function.

The purpose of this study was (1) to assemble and verify a system to measure the three-dimensional (3-D) movement of the upper and lower complete dentures and the movement of the mandible simultaneously, and (2) to analyse the relation between denture movements and the path of closure of the mandible during function. A 3-D motion capture system with four infrared TV cameras was used for this purpose. The relation between the dentures and the mandibular movements was analysed through the change of the inner product of normal vectors of the denture occlusal planes and mandibular planes. The mandibular movements were classified into two types; the normal stroke (the path of closure was on the ipsilateral side of mastication) and the reverse stroke (on the contralateral side). The results showed that the system could measure the denture mobility within a 0.3 mm error. The mobility of the upper dentures had a correlation to the path of closure of the mandible regardless of the working side or nonworking side, and the lower dentures had a tendency to move toward the working side.