Clinical effectiveness of implant support for distal extension removable partial dentures: functional evaluation using occlusal force measurement and masticatory efficiency

Abstract

Background Implant-supported removable partial dentures (ISRPD) are supported at the free-end region with implant retainers. As implant retainers prevent denture settlement and facilitate denture retention, this is intended to improve masticatory performance in comparison with that of conventional removable dentures. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of implant retainers at the free-end region of removable dentures on occlusal force and masticatory efficiency using a pressure-sensitive sheet, and measured glucose concentration in saliva after mastication with gummy candy. Methods In the present study, the occlusal force and masticatory efficiency of 13 subjects were measured in the following three conditions: without dentures (Condition 1), wearing dentures but not supported by implants (Condition 2), and wearing dentures supported by implants (ISRPD) (Condition 3). All data were statistically compared. Results Regarding the occlusal force, Condition 3 showed significantly higher scores than the other conditions; however, there were no significant differences between Conditions 1 and 2. Regarding the masticatory efficiency, Condition 3 showed significantly higher scores than Condition 2. Conclusions With ISRPD, the occlusal force and masticatory efficiency were increased in comparison with those with conventional removable dentures.

Implant-assisted removable partial dentures: Part I. a scoping review of clinical applications

“…In the current situation, Park et al concluded that masticatory movements in patients wearing IARPDs were significantly improved compared with patients wearing CRPDs for mandibular Kennedy classification I from a meta-analysis of these 3 clinical studies [8,33,41,49]. Murakami et al and Gonçalves et al also reported that bite force and mastication functions were significantly improved in patients receiving IARPDs compared to those receiving CRPDs [27,43]. Gonçalves et al showed that the masseter muscle during maximal clenching was significantly thicker in patients wearing IARPDs compared to those wearing CRPDs [43].…”

“…In the present study, case series and reports were also included to acquire a broad range of clinical and basic information on IARPDs. Thirty-eight articles including systematic and literature reviews focused on clinical outcomes including survival rate, success rate, MBL, and complications of dental implants and IARPDs [8,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]27,57,67,70,[72][73][74]127]. Thirty-four articles focused on types of dental implants (length, diameter, brands, and numbers) and biomechanics of IAR-PDs [36,67,71,75,[77][78][79][80]82,84,85,[87][88][89][90][91]93,[95][96][97][98][99][101][102][103][104][105][107][108][109][110]…”

“…Two treatment modalities for IARPDs were found. One was the combination of RPDs retained by surveyed SCs or FPDs, supported by natural teeth or without clasps, dental implants with healing abutment, ball or locator attachments, or other types of attachment systems that were placed below the denture base at premolar or molar areas for Kennedy classifications I and II, known as distal extension IARPDs [7,8,16,18,20,21,27,29,42,45,48,49,53,59,68,[75][76][77]79,86,87,90,92,95,96,99,100,[105][106][107][108]110,111,115,117,119,121,126,127]. The other was a combination of RPDs retained by surveyed SCs or FPDs supported by dental implants in partially or fully edentulous patients [32,35,58,60,62,63,65] (Fig.…”

“…Three systematic reviews and six clinical studies reported functional evaluation parameters for IARPDs [7,8,16,27,33,41,43,44,49]. Zhang et al reported that masticatory ability significantly improved in IARPDs compared to that in RPDs, regardless of attachment types (ball attachment vs. LOCATOR ® [7].…”

“…Healing abutments or attachment systems have been used on dental implants for distal extension IARPDs. Locator ® , magnet, ball, and other attachment systems have been used for dental implants in clinical studies [27,29,30,[36][37][38][39][41][42][43][44][45][46]49,50,[53][54][55]57,67,68,83] (Fig. 4).…”