Aim:The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of three different scanning techniques used for duplication of maxillary complete denture on the denture retention.
Materials and Methods:Ten completely edentulous patients with the age range of 55-65 years old who received new complete upper and lower dentures and recalled after one month to assess their satisfaction of the upper denture retention were selected. For each patient, the maxillary denture was digitally duplicated using three different scanning techniques so three duplicate dentures and three groups were generated according to the way of scanning: Group 1: Duplicated maxillary denture using a desktop scanner. Group 2: Duplicated maxillary denture using a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Group 3: Duplicated maxillary denture using an Intra-oral scanner (IOS). The data were then sent to the 3D printer for digital manufacturing of the prostheses. Retention force which is the maximum force required to completely dislodge the maxillary denture was measured using a digital force gauge with a capacity of 100 N, a minimum unit of 0.1 N, and an accuracy of 0.5%. The device's hook engaged the ring and exerted a dislodging force until the denture was pulled out of its place. The measurements were repeated five times at five minutes intervals for each denture base and the average value was identified.Results: It was found that mean of retention value of printed duplicate dentures was 45.40, 38.10 and 32.10 N for group 1, 2 and 3 respectively, a significant difference between the groups was found (p < 0.001). When comparing between groups, it was found that the mean value of retention of group 1 is higher than that of group 2 and 3, on the other hand, the mean value of retention of group 3 is the lowest between all groups. A significant difference was found between (group 1 & group 2) with p value (=0.002) and a high significant difference was found both between (group 1 & group 3) and between (group 2 & group 3) with p value (<0.001).
Conclusion:Digital duplication of complete denture using the desktop scanner yielded the most retentive denture followed by using the CBCT and the least retentive denture was that made using the IOS.