Processing changes in complete dentures: Posterior tooth contacts and pin opening

Dentures were constructed for 50 patients. The centric relation contacts were marked and photographed before removing the finished trial dentures from the articulator and again on the same articulator and same stone mountings after processing. The amount of incisal pin opening was measured and recorded after processing. An attempt was made to analyze the patterns of centric relation contacts after processing and to determine if there was a correlation of pin opening and tooth contacts. It was found that there was a definite shift of the tooth contacts to the more posterior teeth after processing but that the amount of pin opening did not seem to be related to the number or location of the tooth contacts. The magnitude of pin opening seems to depend upon the amount of shift rather than the direction.