PII: s0300-5712(97)00001-8 Journal ofDentistry, Vol. 26,No. 2, pp.

105-112,1998
o 1998ElsevierScience
Ltd. All rightsreserved
Printedin GreatBritain
0300-5712/98 $19.00+0.00
ELSEVIER

Correlation between inclination of occlusal

plane and masticatory movement
T. Ogawa, K. Koyano and T. Suetsugu
Department of Prosthetic Dentistry II, Faculty of Dentistry, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

ABSTRACT
Objectives: The purposeof this study wasto investigatethe relationshipbetweenthe inclination of the
occlusalplane and masticatory movement.
Methods: Masticatory movementsof 41 young adults were measuredusing the three-dimensional
Mandibular Movement Analyzing System.The inclination of the occlusalplane was measuredin the
sagittal plane usinga three-dimensionaldigitizer.
Results: In the sagittal plane, the masticatory closing path and the occlusalplane were consistentin
maintaining a perpendicularrelation with eachother regardlessof the inter-individual variation of the
inclination of the occlusalplane. Subjectswith an anteriorly inclined occlusalplane showeda vertical
closing path, and subjectswith a posteriorly inclined occlusalplane showeda flat closingpath in the
frontal plane.Thesecharacteristicswere explainedby the variation of the timing on the balancing-side
condylar return correlatedwith the inclination of the occlusalplane.
Conclusions: There is a significant correlation betweenthe inclination of the occlusalplane and the
direction of the closingpath during mastication.0 1998Elsevier ScienceLtd. All rights reserved

KEY WORDS: Occlusal plane, Masticatory movement, Masticatory muscle, Facial morphology

J. Dent. 1998; 26: 105-l 12 (Accepted 5 November 1996)

INTRODUCTION there is a relationship between the direction and/or

strength of the masticatory muscles and the inclination
Biting force depends on the direction and location of of the occlusal plane. Accordingly, this suggestion led
muscles relative to the action point as well as muscle us to question whether masticatory movement, pro-
strength’z2. Maximum biting force is therefore related duced by muscle function, has certain characteristics in
to facial morphology3-5. Ingervall and Helkimo6 relation to the inclination of the occlusal plane.
reported that strong biting force has been recorded in The inclination of the occlusal plane is not only a
cases of parallelism between the occlusal plane and the parameter with which to evaluate dentofacial mor-
mandibular border with lesser anterior face height than phology but is also a standard for occlusal reconstruc-
that of the posterior face. This finding may suggest that tion that should be harmonized with other factors in
the masticatory system. Occlusal guidance is also a
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr T. Ogawa, Depart- standard that has been focused in clinical dentistry.
ment of Prosthetic Dentistry II, Faculty of Dentistry, Kyushu Many studies7P9 have investigated the role of occlusal
University, 3-l-l Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-82, guidance on masticatory function, and there is a con-
Japan. Tel.: 92-642-6441. Fax: 92-642-6380. E-mail:
ogawa@dhembox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp.
sensus that occlusal guidance influences masticatory
Based on a part of a thesis submitted to the graduate faculty, movement with inter-occlusal contact following guiding
Division of Dental Science, Kyushu University, in partial fulfillment incline. However, there is little information available
of the requirements for the PhD degree. concerning the relationship between the inclination of
 106 J. Dent, 1998; 26: No. 2
Fig. 7. The three-dimensional Mandibular Movement
the occlusal plane and masticatory movement. The
role of the occlusal plane in masticatory function has
not been investigated potentially because of the
methodological difficulty in measuring both kinematical
and morphological data using common standard
coordinates.
This study evaluates the hypothesis that correlation
exists between the inclination of the occlusal plane and
masticatory movement.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
Forty-one young adults comprising 16 males and 25
females (age range 19-28 years, mean age 21.7 years)
were randomly selected from students and staff of
Kyushu University. Before their entry into the study, a
clinical examination was performed on each candidate.
All had complete natural dentition excepting third
molars and Angle’s class I occlusion without remark-
able abnormalities in maxillary and mandibular
dentitions, and/or in their relationship. There was no
history of orthodontic therapy and no symptoms
indicative of temporomandibular disorders. The sub-
jects chosen for the study were volunteers who were
fully informed about the nature of the investigation.
Standard coordinates
Camper’s plane, which includes bilateral arbitrary hinge
points and the inferior border point of the left wing
of the nose, was used for the horizontal reference
plane. The arbitrary hinge point was located at 5 mm
vertically inferior to a point 13 mm anterior to the
posterior border of the tragus on the canthus-tragus
line.
Analyzing System used to analyze the movements of any point on the mandible.
Mandibular movement measuring apparatus
Mandibular movements were measured using the three-
dimensional Mandibular Movement Analyzing System
(Eigs l-3) previously described to be reliable for the
measurement of mandibular movementsi’-I*. This
apparatus was developed in our laboratory and has
the ability to measure the movements of any points on
the mandible. A frame with three light-emitting diode
targets (LEDs; HLP-60RB, Hitachi Ltd, Tokyo, Japan)
was attached to the labial surfaces of the mandibular
incisors using casted clutches with cyanoacrylate adhe-
sive (P2000, Alpha Co., Inc., Osaka, Japan). Another
frame with three LED targets was attached to the
maxillary incisors to cancel head movements. The
clutches were designed and attached to the teeth in such
a way that natural movements and lip seal were not
disturbed. Two cameras including position sensitive
detectors (PSDs; S-1880, Hamamatsu Photonics Co.,
Inc., Hamamatsu, Japan) detected the positions of the
six LEDs during movements. The resolution of the
sensing system was 0.04 mm, and the basic principle
was the same as that reported by Karlsson13. The data
were recorded in a data recorder in a digital format at a
sampling rate of 83 Hz.
After the measurement, the positional relationship
between an anterior reference point on the left wing of
the nose and posterior reference points on bilateral
arbitrary hinge points and maxillary dentition was
transferred to an articulator (Dentatus ARL, Almore
International, Inc., Portland, OR, USA) by face-bow
registration (Denar. Corp., Anaheim, CA, USA). The
frames with LEDs were attached to the maxillary and
mandibular casts without losing the horizontal and
vertical relationship with incisors during the measure-
ment of mandibular movement. As shown in Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5, the maxillary and mandibular casts, and the
upper bow of the articulator were fixed, and placed
 Ogawa et al.: Masticatory movement and occlusal plane 107

Fig. 2. LED target frames attached to the labial surfaces of the upper and lower incisors.

MOVEMENT DATA POSITION DATA

LED TARGETS
CAMERA REFERENCE POINTS
AXALYSIS POINTS

--+T= A/D CONVERTER

4
DATA RECORDER
t
PERSONAL COMPUTER 7-t MOVEMEiVT
I ANALYSIS
I I I

Fig. 3. Component of the system.

on a three-dimensional digitizer (MXF203, Mitsutoyo
Mfg., Tokyo, Japan). The positions of the six LEDs,
analysis points on the mandible, and anterior and
posterior reference points, were measured by the
digitizer. The resolution of the digitizer was 0.001 mm.
Our preliminary studyI on reproducibility showed that
total possible error in 10 measurements was 0.05 mm at
all of these points.
After the movement data detected by cameras and the
position data measured by the digitizer were linked with
a personal computer, the movement of the head was
canceled out and three-dimensional movement at any
analysis point on the mandible was obtained. The
trajectory can be observed both on the plotter and
computer display. Since the subject was free to move
the head, and the total measuring device attached to the
lower incisors weighed only 15 g, it was possible to
record natural and physiologic movements. The linear-
ity of the cameras was tested by a specially developed
calibrator, and total possible error was within 0.1 mm.
Measurement of masticatory movement
Each subject was required to sit upright in a dental
chair with her/his FH plane almost horizontal and to
chew gum (1.5 g) (Freezone, Lotte Co., Ltd, Tokyo,
Japan). The head of the subject was not fixed. After the
gum had softened, one masticatory sequence of 20
cycles was recorded on the right side, or the habitual
chewing side if there was one.
108 J. Dent. 1998; 26: No. 2
Fig. 4. three-dimensional digitizer measuring the positions
Fig. 5. Measurement of the position of the right arbitrary
Analysis of masticatory movement
Ten out of 20 cycles were analyzed for each subject,
omitting the first and last five cycles to exclude incom-
plete movement and swallowing. A quantitative analy-
sis of the following variables was performed on each
cycle by computer: (a) the closing angle at the incisal
point in the sagittal and frontal plane at two different
levels from the intercuspal position (ICP), i.e. 0.5 and
5.0 mm, where the 0.5 mm level was defined as a
position within the intercuspal range and 5.0 mm out-
side the intercuspal range (E;ig. 6); (b) the total duration
of one masticatory cycle; (c) the amplitude of mandibu-
lar opening; (d) the maximum velocity in the closing
phase; (e) the position of the balancing-side condyle at
0.5 and 5.0 mm incisal closing levels (Fig. 7). The points
for the analysis of the incisal and condylar movements
were the mesial line angle of the left central incisor and
the morphological center of the condyle on the
of analysis points on the mandible.
hinge point using the three-dimensional digitzer.
kinematic axis15, respectively. For each subject, the
averaged data from 10 cycles was used for statistical
analysis.
Inclination of the occlusal plane
The sagittally viewed inclination angle of the occlusal
plane was evaluated relative to the reference plane (Fig.
8). This value was positive when the incisal point was
superior relative to the second molar point, i.e. when
the occlusal plane inclined in the posterior direction.
The occlusal plane was defined as a straight line from
the mesial line angle of the mandibular left central
incisor to the tip of the distobuccal cusp on the man-
dibular second molar on the side that the masticatory
movement was measured.
As described previously, the face-bow registration
was performed to transfer the positional relationship
 Ogawa et al.: Masticatory movement and occlusal plane 109

ence points were measured on the precision casts with a

A Reference plane three-dimensional digitizer (FgS 4 and 5). The inclina-
,,,,,.___...,...,__...,,.,,.,..,............,..,........,.,..........................................
tion of the occlusal plane was obtained by coordinate
transformation to the standard coordinate of these
position data.
OSmm
.t .t... __
c Statistical methods
4
5.0mm Correlation between the inclination of the occlusal
plane and movement variables was tested, and the
significance of the coefficients of correlation was
determined using t-test at a level of 5%.

. Reference plane . . . RESULTS

The means of measurements of masticatory movements
OSmm and the occlusal plane are shown in Table I. The
.t. .f.. correlations between the inclination of the occlusal
4 plane and movement variables are shown in Table II.
-.T-
5.0mm
Closing angle
Fig. 6. Computerized measurement of the closing angle during The sagittal closing angle at the 5.0 mm level correlated
mastication. The closing angles at the incisal point were calculated significantly with the inclination of the occlusal plane
at 0.5 and 5.0 mm levels below the ICP both in the sagittal (A) and
(Fig. 9). This finding indicates that the incisal point
frontal (8) planes.
approached the occlusal plane almost perpendicularly
at this level, regardless of the variation in the inclination

: i:i ;:: of the occlusal plane. In addition, the frontal closing

angle at the 5.0 mm level negatively correlated with the
inclination of the occlusal plane (Fig. 10).
This finding indicates that subjects with an anteriorly
$: t inclined occlusal plane had a vertical frontally viewed
0 closing path and that subjects with a posteriorly
inclined occlusal plane had a flat frontally viewed
closing path; whereas, analysis at the 0.5 mm level
revealed no significant correlation between the closing
: angle and the inclination of the occlusal plane.

Fig. 7. Analysis of the position of the balancing-side condyle during

masticatory closure. The amount of balancing-side condylar devia- Position of balancing-side condyle
tion from ICP (0) was measured at two different levels, i.e. when
the incisal point existed at 0.5 (7) and 5.0 mm (H) closing levels.
As shown in Table IZ, the position of the balancing-side
condyle during closure correlated with the inclination of
the occlusal plane at the 5.0 mm, but not at the 0.5 mm,
...... ... Reference
.......... ...... ....plane
... .............. level. The finding at the 5.0 mm level indicates that
subjects with a posteriorly inclined occlusal plane had
the balancing-side condyle placed more distant from the
intercuspal position than those with an anteriorly
inclined occlusal plane. In contrast, the balancing-side
condyle of subjects with an anteriorly inclined occlusal

w
Fig. 8. Definition of the inclination of the occlusal plane.
plane returned nearly to the intercuspal position in
comparison with subjects with a posteriorly inclined
occlusal plane.

Other movement variables

between the reference plane and maxillary dentition to
an articulator. The positions of the central incisor and No significant correlations were found between the
second molar points, and anterior and posterior refer- inclination of the occlusal plane and the amplitude of
 110 J. Dent. 1998; 26: No. 2

Tab/e 1. The means and standard deviations (SD) for measurements of movements and inclination of occlusal plane

Closing angle 0 Balancing-side condylar

Sagittal Frontal Mandibular Total Maximum closing translation (mm) Occlusal plane
0.5 5.0 0.5 5.0 opening (mm) duration (s) velocity (mm/s) 0.5 5.0 inclination 0

Mean 91.9 87.9 55.2 70.9 14.5 0.69 91.9 0.2 2.2 +I .7
SD 11.5 9.4 11.7 5.9 3.1 0.10 27.8 0.1 0.8 5.2

Table Il. Regression analysis between inclination of occlusal plane and movement variables

Closing angle Balancing-side condylar

Sagittal Frontal Mandibular Total Maximum closing translation
0.5 5.0 0.5 5.0 opening duration velocity 0.5 5.0

Correlation coefficient 0.74 -0.54 0.68

P value ns. <O.OOi ns. <O.OOl n.s. n.s. n.s. ns. <O.OOl

TCD, total cycle duration.

n.s., not significant.

mandibular opening, or between the inclination of the ism between the occlusal plane and mandibular border.
occlusal plane and time variables, such as the duration Though this report is based on analysis only with the
of one masticatory cycle and the maximum velocity in strong muscle group, this suggestion may account for
the closing phase. the present findings in the sagittal plane. Not only the
force but also the direction of the muscles may con-
tribute to the formation of the mandibular border and
DISCUSSION the inclination of the occlusal plane, resulting in the
In the sagittal plane, the occlusal plane and the occlusal plane being correlated with the individual
masticatory closing path were consistent in maintaining direction of the muscles. The muscles, especially the
a perpendicular relationship. This motor characteristic elevator muscles, would induce the masticatory move-
could make an ideal and efficient method for transmit- ments according to direction, leading to the correlation
ting the bite force to the dentitions. It is not clear between the inclination of the occlusal plane and
whether genetically determined facial morphology masticatory movements. The control of mastication
determines the strength of the masticatory muscles, or depends on other various integration of proprioceptive
whether a strong musculature influences the facial and exteroceptive information fed back to the central
morphology. However, some researchers4,6 supported nervous system16. For instance, Morimoto et al.17
the hypothesis that the facial morphology partly demonstrated that, at high chewing frequency, the
depends on the strength of masticatory muscles. closing path was located posteriorly and the amplitude
According to Ingervall and Helkimo6, strong muscles of the mandibular opening was decreased. The present
seem to induce anterior rotation of the mandible, study measured the duration of one masticatory cycle
reducing the anterior face height, resulting in parallel- and the amplitude of mandibular opening in order to

(degrees) E (degrees)
Y=-0.61X+71.85
120 Y=1.31X+85.82 E 90

9
m
llO-
1 r=0.74 0
ti 1 i-=-o.54
.

t; loo-

aI
; 90-

2 SO-
B
0
70-
; .
& GO-
n=41 n=41
g 507 I I I I I 2 50, I I I I I I
-i5 -io -5 0 5 10
(degrees)
15 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 (degreesi
Inclination of the occlusal plane Inclination of the occlusal plane -
Fig. 9. The relationship between the inclination of the occlusal plane Fig. 10. The relationship between the frontal closing angle and the
and the sagittal closing angle in the area outside intercuspation. inclination of the occlusal plane in the area outside intercuspation.
 Ogawa
examine the relationship between these movement vari-
ables. There were no significant correlations between
the inclination of the occlusal plane and the duration of
one masticatory cycle, and the amplitude of mandibular
opening. A longitudinal study to follow the change of
the inclination of the occlusal plane and masticatory
movement should be of interest in order to evaluate the
role of muscles and motor function on the formation
and development of the occlusal plane.
Kinematically, the inter-individual directional vari-
ation of the sagittally viewed closing path is determined
mainly by the position of the balancing-side condyle.
For instance, as the balancing-side condyle is located
near the intercuspal position in the closing phase, the
rotation increases to maintain the amplitude of the
mandibular opening, thus placing the incisal point more
posteriorly. Therefore, the influence of the inclina-
tion of the occlusal plane on the sagittally viewed
masticatory closing path has been confirmed by the
present findings in that the position of the balancing-
side condyle correlated with the inclination of the
occlusal plane. However, which findings are the cause
and/or effect of the demonstrated motor characteristics,
the direction of the incisal path or the position of
the balancing-side condyle, and how the timing of the
forward and backward condylar translation is governed
remain unclear.
In the construction of complete dentures, the occlusal
plane is commonly determined as parallel to Camper’s
plane’8,‘9. However, the inclination of the occlusal
plane relative to Camper’s plane varies according to the
individual’4B20, and facial type20321. A cephalometric
study demonstrated that the reliability of Camper’s
plane as a guide to simulate the occlusal plane is
questionable22. The problem is that only morphologic
information is available regarding the orientation of the
occlusal plane. Though the present study was based on
the analysis of dentate subjects, the perpendicular rela-
tionship between the occlusal plane and masticatory
closing path could provide basic information for the
significance of the inclination of the occlusal plane, and
functional orientation of the occlusal plane in complete
denture prosthesis.
The present study also shows that the more the
occlusal plane inclines in the posterior direction, the
flatter the closing path appears when viewed frontally.
This characteristic can also be explained by the above
mentioned finding on the timing of the balancing-side
condylar translation. It is geometrically predicted that
the lateral displacement of the incisal path varies with
the position of the balancing-side condyle. Therefore, as
shown by the results, the posteriorly inclined occlusal
plane delays the return of the balancing-side condyle,
thereby increasing the lateral displacement of the incisal
point during closure.
Prostheses should be in harmony with other existing
factors in the masticatory system. Occlusal guidance is
related to masticatory movement’, and the closing path
et a/.: Masticatory movement and occlusal plane 111
during mastication is forced to slide following occlusal
guidance within or near the intercuspal range23. There-
fore, the cuspal inclines, and the occlusal form of a
prosthesis must be in harmony with occlusal guidance
so as not to disturb an individual pattern of masticatory
movement24. In addition, this study has demonstrated
the inter-individual variation of masticatory movement
related to the inclination of the occlusal plane. This
finding may have to be considered for functional
prostheses. An experimental study to investigate the
effect of altered inclination of the occlusal plane on
masticatory movement should be conducted to apply
this finding clinically. The regulation of masticatory
movement by occlusal guidance could explain why no
significant correlation existed between the inclination of
the occlusal plane and the direction of masticatory
closing path at the 0.5 mm level.
Patterns of masticatory movements are developed
and acquired to conform to the principle of functional
efficiency and performance25. This study has shown that
the direction of the closing path during mastication
correlated with the inclination of the occlusal plane.
The inclination of the occlusal plane may be con-
sidered a contributing factor in the development and
acquisition of mastication.
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