Complete denture as a myofunctional therapeutic appliance to guide the patient into centric relation –A clinical report

Abstract

One of the most difficult tasks to accomplish in complete denture treatment is retruding the mandible to obtain the centric relation (CR) record 1-8. This can occur due to the absence of synchronization in groups of opposing muscles when the patients are asked to close in the retruded position. Several methods have been designated for helping the edentulous patient to retrude their mandibles into CR 2-9. The tongue can be utilized to help the edentulous patients to record CR 2,4,9-14. When the tip of the tongue is turned back toward the soft palate, it exerts a muscular pull on the mandible in a backward direction to the desired position. Many appliances that guide the mandible to the centric relation position have been utilized in the past. However, most of these appliances can compromise speech and oral hygiene. This article describes a simple procedure that enables the edentulous patient to retrude the mandible to its CR position and to reduce the hazards of protruding the mandible from its retruded position during closing the mouth to CR.