Once you have mounted the maxillary with the facebow consider the model to be permanently fixed to the articulator (just as the maxillary bone is fixed to the cranium*). When you have occasion to take another centric record, you only remount the mandibular.

Finally when you do have to remove the maxillary and mandibular casts, be sure and preserve the plaster indices. After processing you will have to remount the models.

*The upper jaw of sharks is not firmly attached to the skull. Sharks can protrude both jaws allowing for a larger, more lethal bite. Be thankful you will never have to make a denture for a shark, because with two movable jaws, trying to get a centric record would destroy your mind. In addition it would probably cost you an arm and a leg.

So unless you are making dentures for a shark, with each new centric record only remount the mandibular.

©1999 by Julius Rosen, D.D.S.