One device that I really love to use in my practice is a leaf gauge.
A leaf gauge is basically a piece of plastic that has multiple thin layers that you can easily use to put in between the front teeth and have the patient kind of move back and forth in a protrusive manner.
Transcript continued below...
Just to kind of loosen up the musculature, loosen up the lateral pterygoids to allow the joints to seat into their proper positions. You can take away certain thicknesses of the leaf and until you get to the first point of contact.
It's a great way to find first point of contact. It's a great way to adjust splints so you can get even contacts all the way around.
The one thing that you have to be sure of is you still have to verify that the patient is in centric relation and you do that with bimanual manipulation. But a leaf gauge is a great tool to get the patient loose and to find those first points of contact and to adjust splints.
So I highly recommend using that in your practice.
