Evaluation and comparison of freeway space in edentulous and dentulous patients with and without head-stabilizing device

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate freeway space with and without head-stabilizing device. Materials and Methods: A head posture-fixing device was used to fix the head posture in a natural head position. The goniometer (ISICO, 17 Transparent, 360°, Galaxy informatics India, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-India) axis was used in various studies to standardize head posture changes. The digital calipers with measuring range of 0–150 mm/0”–6” and resolution of 0.01 mm/0.0005” was used. Chin–tip of the nose (Niswonger’s method) was taken as the reference point. Results: Freeway space without head-stabilizing device for dentulous and edentulous subjects was 4.8 mm and with stabilizing device was 2.2 mm, which was near to the precise value, and was found to be significant with head-stabilizing device. Conclusion: There was a significant difference between all tested groups. These results clarified that freeway space with head-stabilizing device obtained excellent reproducibility compared to the conventional methods.