Let's talk about is centric relation (CR) really a repeatable position? As a matter of fact, one of the greatest benefits of working and restoring a patient in this position is that it is repeatable. It's not only repeatable but it's repeatable within needlepoint accuracy.
How to practice repeating centric relation
If you haven't been to any of the Dawson Academy's hands-on seminars for the records, the Exam & Records course is one of the most interesting and confidence-building exercises that we do. We have several different operators to take bite records on the same patient with different materials and different techniques.
For example, we'll have small groups of three to five dentists and each dentist takes a turn being the patient, and each dentist takes a turn being the operator or the dentist. They will use different techniques to take the bite records. For example, they might use lucia jig or a leaf gauge in combination with bimanual manipulation. The materials may also be different. We could use something like a rigid polyvinyl siloxane material or the blue DeLar wax wafers.
Different, properly-done techniques yield the same outcome
What we have found is that we have complete consistently. I have seen this not only in our courses at the academy, but also from personal experience at other continuing education organizations that follow Dr. Dawson's teaching about centric relation. He taught us that we can take these bite records with different operators, different techniques, different materials, and they all come out in the same position.
Verifying centric relation with an articulator
There are actually tools or instrumentation that you can measure these on. For example, with the Denar Articulator, they have the Centri-Check system with the SAM 3 Articulator. There is a mandibular position indicator and there are lots of instruments that we can measure this on. But on the side of the instrumentation, we can place graph paper, place the bite record in between those mounted models and check with different colors of articulating paper. You will see that all of the bite records from the different operators come out in the same position. This is a great way to be confident that the patient's condylar position can be recorded accurately and repeatably.
Ensure you are taking records in centric relation by completing your training in Examination & Records. Learn More Here!
