A color-enhanced aid for location of the transverse horizontal opening and closing axis of the mandible

This article describes the use of a device for assisting in identification of the direction of the arc of rotation while locating the transverse horizontal opening and closing axis of the mandible. Translucent disks are mounted on the point of the styli of a kinematic face-bow and centering magnets are aligned with them, with no overlapping of the colors. The direction of the arcing movement is enlarged by the overlapping of the translucent disk over the centering magnet. The different color value generated by the overlapping identifies the arcing direction. After correction on the microadjustable arm, the centering magnet is realigned on the translucent disk. This sequence is repeated until the disk no longer overlaps with the centering magnet during the opening and closing movements of the mandible. This device uses the different color generated by mixing the color of the disk against a template of darker color. The disk enlarges the point of the stylus, thus magnifies the direction of the arc of rotation, and potentially reduces the clinical time necessary to locate the points of pure rotation.