Rehabilitation Of Completely Edentulous Patients - A University Based Study

Conventional complete dentures are supported by the edentulous ridges and the mucosa that overlies them. There is close contact, but no direct attachment between the prosthesis and the ridges, and the prostheses are constructed to maximise any potential retentive forces whilst attempting to minimise those that displace them. In such an active, muscularly-controlled environment this is problematic, and many patients have difficulties adapting to their dentures, particularly the lower denture. The main aim of this cross-sectional study is to evaluate the number of completely edentulous patients willing for implant supported fixed prosthesis. This is a record based study with a sample size of 365. The present study was conducted among edentulous patients who visited the outpatient department at the institution. The data was collected from the patient records. The data was categorised into age groups, gender, preference for fixed or removable prosthesis and type of fixed prosthesis. The coding was done in MS excel. The data was transferred to a host computer and processed using SPSS software version 21.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) by tabulation and graphical illustration. Descriptive statistics and chi square test was used to study the data collected and to analyse frequency distribution. The results showed that, of all the edentulous patients, only 3.8% wanted implant prosthesis and 96.2% wanted conventional complete dentures (CCD). Of the patients who preferred implant supported prosthesis 42% of them preferred screw retained prosthesis, followed by cement retained 35%, followed by overdenture 14% and 7% hybrid prosthesis. There is however, no significant association between gender and patients opting for full mouth rehabilitation(FMR) with implant prosthesis, but significant association is seen between age and patients preferring FMR.