1. Minor Connectors
• Connects components to the major
connector
– Direct retainer
– Indirect retainer
– Denture base

2. Functions of Minor Connectors
• Unification and rigidity
• Stress distribution
• Bracing through contact
with guiding planes
• Maintain a path of
insertion

3. Types of Minor Connectors
• Embrasure Minor Connectors
– Between two adjacent teeth

4. Types of Minor Connectors
• Embrasure Minor Connectors
– Triangular shaped in cross section
– Joins major connector at right angles
– Relief placed so connector not directly
on soft tissue

5. Types of Minor Connectors
• Embrasure Minor Connectors
– Contact teeth above height of
contour
– Prevents wedging & tooth
mobility
– Alternatively, difficult to seat

6. Gridwork Minor Connectors
• Connect the denture base and teeth
to the major connector

7. Gridwork Minor Connectors
• Adjacent edentulous spaces
• Usually connect major connector
to direct retainers
• Open lattice work or mesh types

8. Gridwork Minor Connectors
• Mesh type
– Flatter
– Potentially more rigid
– Less retention for acrylic
if openings are small

9. Gridwork Minor Connectors
• Lattice Type
• Potentially superior retention
• Interferes with setting of teeth, if
struts are too thick
– Both types are acceptable if correctly
designed

10. Gridwork Relief
• Mechanical retention of denture
base resin
• Allows the acrylic resin to flow
under the gridwork

11. Gridwork Relief
• Relief wax is placed in the
edentulous areas
• 1 mm of relief

12. Relief Under the Gridwork
• Should begin 1.5 - 2 mm
from the abutment tooth

13. Relief Under the Gridwork
• Creates a metal to tissue contact
adjacent tooth
– Preferable since it wears less
– Less porous, (hygiene)

14. Junction With Major Connector
• Butt joint with slight undercut in metal
• Maximum bulk of the acrylic resin
• Prevents thin, weak edges fracturing
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15. Mandibular Gridwork Design
• Extend 2/3 of the way
from abutment tooth
to retromolar pad
• Never on the ascending
portion of the ridge
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16. Maxillary Gridwork Design
• Gridwork
– 2/3 of the length of
from abutment to the
hamular notch
• Major connector
– extends fully to the
hamular notch

17. Gridwork Design
Facially just over the crest
of the residual ridge

18. Position of Major Connector Junction
• Should be ≈ 2 mm medial to lingual
surface of denture teeth
• Ensures bulk of resin around teeth

19. Mandibular Tissue Stops
• Contact of metal with
cast at posterior of
distal extension
gridwork
• Prevents distortion at
free end during
hydraulic pressure of
processing

20. No Tissue Stops In Maxilla
• Maxillary major
connector acts as a
tissue stop (no relief)

21. Proximal Plates
• Minor connectors originating from the
gridwork in an edentulous area
• Broad contact with guiding planes
• May or may not terminate in an occlusal rest

22. Proximal Plates

23. Proximal Plates
• Shifted slightly lingually
– Increases rigidity
– Enhances reciprocation
– Improves esthetics
• Often a triangular space below the
guiding plane (an undercut)

24. Proximal Plates
• Rigid, cannot be
placed in undercut
• Block-out placed in
undercuts prior to
waxing and casting
the framework

25. Zero Degree Block-Out
• Does not deviate from path of insertion
• Instructions to the laboratory should
state “Use zero degree blockout”