How to check for canine guidance?
Anabelle Smith
2025-08-06 04:02:39
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If you slide you teeth to your right, and only your right canines contact during this lateral excursion, then you have canine guidance. Canine guidance is reckoned to be a good thing, as canines are excellent at coping with lateral forces. If this happens, you are said to have a canine-protected occlusion. The same idea applies to the left of course. You may have heard the phrases posterior guidance and anterior guidance used when the mandible moves about in protrusive and lateral excursions. Dynamic occlusion is the study of the contacts that teeth make when the mandible is moving – contacts when the jaw moves sideways, forwards, backwards, or at an angle. The contacts are not points, they are lines. If you get a patient to grind their teeth in every direction on piece of articulating paper, you will see the lines formed by dynamic occlusion. Working side and non-working side can be defined in relation to lateral excursions. Types of anterior guidance in lateral excursions include canine guidance, group function, working side interference, and non-working side interference.
Yolanda Hill
2025-08-06 01:47:42
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You can check if you have good canine guidance by moving your jaw to the side while maintaining contact between your canines. Throughout this motion you should feel no contact between your back teeth whether you move to the left or the right. When you slide your jaw to the side with upper and lower canines touching, they should guide the rear teeth apart – i.e. slide to the side and your molars should separate immediately. If you do feel a contact, called an interference, chances are that you are beginning to experience problems with the contacting teeth and need some work done to prevent increasing problems in the future. Total canine guidance requires three features to be working in harmony. Canine guidance is a feature where your canines ensure that the back teeth don't contact when the jaw is slid to the side.