How to Take a Protrusive Bite Record [Ed.]

[This article, originally published 11/15/12, is one of our most widely read descriptions of a clinical technique.]

A protrusive bite record is taken with Master wax with the mandible pushed forward into a protrusive movement so that the condyle has moved down the eminence.

Out of the box, this wax has a little bit of give and needs to be made more malleable by warming it with a dental torch. It's advisable to hold the wax in the center and only heat the areas that will come in direct contact with the teeth.

By keeping the center area stiff, you will lower your chances of producing a distorted record when you remove it from the patient's mouth. It's important to note that this wax warms a bit more quickly compared to the blue Delar wax and produces a shine almost instantaneously.

Once the wax is warmed, take it to the patient's mouth and cover the edge of the upper incisor teeth. Instruct your patient to push their mandible forward, hold it forward, and bite down. The patient's lower teeth are now ahead of their upper teeth – otherwise known as a protrusive position. Observe that wax is filling the space between the posterior teeth; ask the patient to hold that position and then immediately chill with air.

After verifying that you have indentations from both upper and lower teeth, drop the record into a cup of water so it doesn't distort.

This process allows you to capture the maxillo-mandibular relationship in a forward position of the mandible. By using this record with models mounted on the articulator with a CR record it's possible to customize the set-up and mimic more precisely what the patient can do with mandibular movement.