Analysis of the Virtual Facebow Transfer by Using a Facebow Fork. An In Vitro Study

In dentistry, for different reasons, several processes necessary to respond to different patient needs must be performed outside the mouth. This forces to have an “extra ore” model of the patient’s masticatory apparatus. For this purpose, the best alternative today is the virtual articulator. For an effective use of the virtual articulator, it is necessary to transfer the patient’s data to the virtual environment. This is the base of the virtual facebow technique. There are different virtual methods that meet the function of the facebow, all of which use reverse engineering software. However, the accuracy of these methods is not well-known, and it is therefore clear that this is a matter of analysis before putting it into practice in everyday life. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyze, by means of in vitro tests, the accuracy of one of the virtual methods for transferring the digitized maxillary models to the virtual articulator: the virtual facebow transfer by using a facebow fork.