Purpose: This study comprises the fifth and final part of a comprehensive investigation of the positions of the temporo-mandibular joint condyles. In this evaluation, we wanted to investigate the neuromuscular position of the mandible.
Materials and Methods: The neuromuscular condylar pos-itions were recorded by four independent operators in 81 fully dentate subjects with healthy oral function using a central bearing point system and rapid closing movements. The “most frequent adduction point” was determined, and the recordings were repeated twice for each subject. The sub-jects’ maxillary casts were mounted in an articulator using an individual facebow transfer, subsequently the mandibular casts were mounted with a central-bearing-point registration on the tip of the Gothic arch, ie, in centric condylar position. A custom-made electronic measuring articulator was used to determine the spatial distance between the condyles in cen-tric relation, maximal occlusion and the newly determined neuromuscular position.
Results: The reproducibility of the neuromuscular registra-tions was on average 0.52 ± 0.16 mm (range 0.04–2.53 mm) with the right and left side averaged. The spatial distances of the condyles between maximal intercuspal position and neu-romuscular positions were 0.88 ± 0.30 mm (range 0.12–5.98 mm), again averaged for the right and left sides, whereas the ones between the centric condylar position and the neuro-muscular positions were 0.83 ± 0.27 mm (range 0.10–7.89 mm).
Conclusions: The neuromuscular mandibular position is nei-ther identical to maximal intercuspal position nor to centric relation. It can therefore be concluded, that the registration of the neuromuscular adduction field should not be recom-mended for prosthodontic restorations in dentate or edentu-lous patients. Int J Prosthodont 2025. doi: 10.11607/ijp.9236
Keywords: neuromuscular condylar position, TM-joint, myocentric position, field of adduction, central-bearing-point registration, Gothic arch, occlusion
