Purpose: The purpose of the study was to learn the effect of changes in the articulator settings on the cusp angles during working, nonworking, and protrusive movements; the purpose was also to determine the ability of the coordinate measuring machine to measure the movements.
Materials and methods: The condylar angles and the anterior guide angles on a Hanau 96H2 articulator (Teledyne Hanau Corp, Buffalo, NY) were varied; 432 working, nonworking, and protrusive cusp angles were measured at the first molar by a coordinate measuring machine.
Results: The data from the coordinate measuring machine was used to produce formulas. The formulas were used to calculate the working, nonworking, and protrusive cusp angles that will occur as a result of 72 different articulator settings.
Conclusions: The coordinate measuring machine is useful for making measurements of articulator movements. Additional research may measure the movements of other articulators or compare articulators (such as the arcon and nonarcon).