LEADERS IN OCCLUSAL ANALYSIS: Dr. Parker Mahan with Drs. Lundeen and Gibbs in the background photographed with the gnathic replicator and computer.
“Digital Occlusion” was born in the basement of Case Western University when a number of dentists headed by doctors Lundeen and Gibbs developed the gnathic replicator in the mid-1960s.
The project was completed at the University of Florida in 1985 and the findings were published as The Function of Teeth in 2005. Forty doctors correlated traditional occlusal thinking to computer-generated data mapping mandibular movements in actual time.
The original gnathic replicator took hours to assemble and calibrate in order to accurately collect jaw movement and occlusal pressure data. These men taught us “how to think” about occlusion.
