Denar and Hanau Verification Gage
Inside Dental Technology delivers updates on digital workflows, materials, lab techniques, and innovation in dental technology through expert articles and videos.
September 1, 2011
Volume 2, Issue 8, September 2011
Page(s):
By Jeff Stubblefield | Technical Director, DAL Signature Restorations
For the past dozen or so years, technicians at DAL Signature Restorations, Inc., have been fabricating cases involving occlusal reconstruction on Denar and Hanau articulators. We have come to depend on these instruments to accurately represent the transfer of maxillary and mandibular casts, as well as interocclusal records. The challenge has been to keep these instruments calibrated, as the integrity of the records transferred were at stake. Until recently, there were two options in maintaining these instruments at calibration. First, instruments could be shipped back to Whip Mix to be calibrated. Second, the field gage could be used to achieve calibration. Both options provided accurate results. However, it could become troublesome to send articulators to be calibrated frequently. Also, the field gage, while an accurate instrument, was not really user-friendly. It required loosening and tightening the locking and adjustment screws while at the same time looking through the viewer to ensure that the crosshairs continued to line up. It was a daunting task, but certainly doable.
It is exciting that Whip Mix, in an effort to continue to upgrade their products and systems, introduced the Verification Gage for Denar and Hanau articulators.
This new instrument dramatically streamlines the process of calibrating articulators in the laboratory. The process is simplified. After removing the thumbscrews, the area is cleaned to ensure that the gage will attach accurately. Once attached to the upper and lower members, simply place .002” shimstock between the upper and lower plates in four separate spots and pull to test for drag and verify the vertical condyle position. If all four positions have some tug, then the condylar position is accurate.
The Verification Gage has two alignment holes, which accept dowel pins that allow for both side-to-side and front-to-back calibration simultaneously. By loosening the four crossbar screws and inserting the two dowel pins into the holes, the alignment can be set just by re-tightening the crossbar screws in a crossing pattern.
When the verification pin falls through the holes, the alignment is calibrated. This gage can even help you adjust the latch if it is loosened or moved and is not locking.
This Verification Gage is well designed, easy to use, and accurately manufactured to help our laboratory keep our instrument’s integrity. Calibration now takes half the time it used to, and it is always correct the first time.
The manufacturer provided the preceding material. The statements and opinions contained therein are solely those of the manufacturer and not of the editors, publisher, or the Editorial Board of Inside Dental Technology.
For more information, contact:
Whip Mix Corporation
Phone 800-626-5651 ext. 1270
Web www.whipmix.com
E-mail jstubblefield@dentalartslab.com
