A Comparative Study of Facebow Transfer on Hanau and Whip-mix Articulators

Received 13/07/92; revised 01/12/92; accepted 20/04/93 * Assistant Professor, Department of Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University ** Lecturer, Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, P.O. Box 60169, Riyadh 11545, Saudi Arabia. Address reprint requests to: Dr. M. A. Abdullah * Teledyne Hanau, P.O. Box 203,80 Sonwil Drive, Buffalo, NY 14224. Prior face-bow studies showed that the relationship of the plane of reference is not maintained as it is transferred from the patient to the articulator because the anterior third point of reference is not represented correctly on the articulators. The third point of reference which is orbital on the Hanau H2 articulator is located 7 mm above the condylar axis while that on the whip-mix articulator is at the level of the condylar axis. The antero-posterior inclination of the occlusal plane of the maxillary casts of 30 subjects was transferred to the Hanau 158-H2 articulator by Hanau earpiece facebow and compared to that transferred to the Whip-mix articulator by a quick mount face-bow. The results indicated that the sagittal inclination of the occlusal plane was greater in the Whip-mix articulator. This result suggested that the Frankfort plane-maxillary occlusal plane relationship that exists in the patient is not transferred as accurately to the Whip-mix articulator.