An evaluation of mandibular border movements: their character and significance.

1. A comparison of protrusive and lateral condylar border movement pathways of 163 subjects revealed considerable similarity when the frequency of 80% of the pathways was compared with the average pathway. 2. A description of the pathways of posterior cusps during lateral contact gliding movement must consider three simultaneously acting guidance factors: (1) the nonworking condyle pathway, (2) the amount of Bennett movement or the working-side condyle displacement, and (3) the anterior guidance or working-side tooth contacts. 3. A Bennett movement of 2.5 to 3.5 mm caused a dramatic flattening of lateral movement pathways of the molar cusp as seen in the frontal plane. The steepness of neither the anterior guidance nor the nonworking condylar pathway had much influence on the molar cusp pathway in the presence of this excessive Bennett movement. 4. Viewed in the horizontal plane, excessive Bennett movement contributed to the greatest potential for collisions of molar cusps during lateral movements. This phenomenon was more pronounced on the nonworking side. 5. When the Bennett movement was 0.75 mm or less the tracing in the frontal plane showed that the 40-degree anterior guidance became the dominant influence over molar cusp lateral movement pathways.