Reliability and comparison of two facial measurements to detect changes of occlusal vertical dimension in complete denture wearers

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Confirmation that 'the mandible move(s) more than the skin marks'.

Main

Şakar O, Sülün T et al. Gerodontology 2011; 28: 205–208

An enduring problem is how to measure reliably the occlusal vertical dimension (OVD) when constructing complete dentures, particularly when using facial measurements. In this study, the distance from the 1) tip of the nose to the chin, and 2) from the subnasal to the chin was compared at different OVD in 30 edentulous subjects. The OVD was altered using a central bearing device that was attached to base plates. These investigators found the distances recorded using skin markers were unreliable. Notwithstanding this, the tip of the nose to the chin was not as fickle as the subnasal to the chin. For example, when measuring the distance from the subnasal to the chin, one measurement decreased by 4.5 mm when the OVD actually increased by 5 mm!