The influence of canine guidance and condylar guidance on mandibular lateral movement

This study investigates the definite influence of the working-side canine and balancing-side condylar guidances on mandibular lateral movement. Lateral movements were measured on 40 young adults (22 males and 18 females), using the three-dimensional mandibular movement analysing system. The inclinations of the paths were calculated on the working-side canine, incisor, balancing-side first and second molars and balancing-side condylar points in the frontal plane. Multiple regression analysis enabled quantitative evaluation of the influence of the canine path and condylar path on the path of each tooth. The canine path showed greater influence than the condylar path even on the balancing-side second molar path. There was no difference between male and female subjects in the influential ratio of the canine guidance to the condylar guidance on any tooth path. It was concluded that the influence of the anterior and posterior guidance on the lateral movement varied according to the type of tooth, but not to the gender of the subject. This functional characteristic was confirmed by the morphological finding that the relative location of the molars in relation to canine and condyle does not differ between the sexes. The difference in the guiding system between the protrusive and lateral movement is also described in this paper.