A starter's guide to preclinical teeth arrangement: simplified clinometer

Arrangement of artificial teeth in a bilaterally symmetrical fashion with proper inclinations of teeth had been a challenging task for beginners. A variety of tools and guiding equipment have been developed to help students to learn teeth arrangement. Unfortunately, those tools were either costly or unsuitable for use with mean value articulators. This article attempts to introduce a simplified clinometer which can be attached to mean value articulator and can be used as a guide to arrange teeth in a bilaterally symmetrical manner by the undergraduates in both clinical and preclinical set-up. Training of the future dentists in sound esthetic principles in a preclinical environment, using this device, will increase the final clinical efficacy of their work. The aim of this article is to provide a simple but effective device to undergraduate students to help them learn teeth arrangement easily and systematically.