A physiological method to determine the vertical dimension of occlusion

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670816
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Prosthodontics/ Dental materials science and
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: MAEDA Yoshinobu 大阪大学, 歯学研究科(研究院), 教授 (10144510)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 咬合高径

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We previously demonstrated that the participants were able to precisely control isometric contractions of the masseter muscles so as to keep their jaws in the physiological resting position during ramp load applied to the jaw in the mouth-opening direction, presumably through the calibration between the two types of information arising from muscle spindles and periodontal mechanoreceptors.
We investigated whether such a calibration mechanism exists only at the proper vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO) to assess whether the lost VDO in edentulous patients can be determined in a physiological way. We examined the effects of altering the VDO on voluntary isometric contraction of the jaw muscles. The subjects overestimated the load increase regardless of whether the VDO was either increased or decreased. These results suggest that the subject can precisely control isometric contraction only in the centric occlusal position. Therefore, the lost VDO can be assessed physiologically.

Free Research Field

歯科補綴学