Purpose: The purpose of this Critically Appraised Topic was to investigate the possible clinical relevance of recording the immediate mandibular lateral translation.
Materials and methods: A literature search limited to Clinical trials, Randomized Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Meta Analyses, and using the PICO headings revealed no citations. Using the key words dental, occlusion, immediate side shift, also received no citations. Expanding the search criteria to include Journal Articles revealed 17 citations. Using dental occlusion, Bennett movement, revealed 21 citations.
Results: The cited articles were reviewed for relevance and duplicates were eliminated. The resulting 10 English language in vivo studies pertinent to the question were included. Other articles were culled from the author's library and the reference list of the aforementioned articles. There is no evidence on the prevalence of IMLT in patients in need of occlusal rehabilitation. There is agreement that the recording of the IMLT is reference point and recording instrument dependent. There is agreement that IMLT is observable on some patients and is minimal in magnitude. There is no evidence of any adverse clinical events as a result of not including IMLT in a restorative occlusal scheme.
Conclusions: It is justifiable to question the necessity of attempting both to record immediate mandibular lateral translation on the average patient and reproduce it on an articulator.
Keywords: Bennett Movement; Mandibular movements; immediate lateral translation.
© 2021 by the American College of Prosthodontists.