Evaluation of the relationship between anterior and posterior functionally disclusive angles. Part I: Literature review, instrumentation, and reproducibility.

Authors are not in agreement concerning the existence of an anatomofunctional interrelationship between condylar and anterior guidances of the mandible in humans. Current literature consists either of speculative statements or studies omitting the role of the meniscus. This article (part I) describes a unique method to correlate the condylar functional anatomy to the lingual inclines of the maxillary anterior teeth (anterior guidance) and acknowledges all components of the temporomandibular joint. The measurements obtained by means of this method were reproduced five different times on five different subjects, making possible a valid statistical analysis of the correlation between condylar and anterior guidances of the mandible (part II).