THE EFFECT OF RIDGE HEIGHT ON RETENTION OF ACRYLIC AND FLEXIBLE DENTURES IN PATIENTS WITH COMPLETE EDENTULOUS MAXILLARY ARCH: A PILOT STUDY.

Introduction: Removable denture still stands as the preferred option in the management of completely edentulous arch in the developing society. The prosthodontist is challenged with providing a retentive denture to the patient, alleviating the effect of tooth loss. The retention of these prostheses is influenced by the material used for it fabrication and the edentulous ridge height, hence the need to assess the retention of acrylic and flexible complete denture and the effect of edentulous ridge height.

Aim: This study was to assess and compare the effect of ridge height on retention of flexible and acrylic complete upper dentures.

Materials and methods: Ten patients with complete upper edentulous arches were recruited and randomly allocated into two groups (A and B). Acrylic and flexible, complete maxillary dentures were fabricated for each participant. Group A wore the acrylic denture first, while group B wore the flexible denture first. Each participant was recalled after using the denture for one week, one month, and three months for data collection.At cross over time (3 months after wearing the first denture), individuals in group A were given flexible dentures, while those in group B received acrylic dentures. The patients were recalled again for data collection by one of the researchers. Kapa Intra examiner reliability test was 83.3%. Information related to denture retention were obtained and entered into IBM SPSS software version 23 for analysis. Paired t-test and linear regression were used to test for association between quantitative variables. A P-value of 0.05 was regarded as significant.

Results: Ten individuals with mean age of 66.5±9.7 years and mean anterior ridge height of 15.5 ± 2.95 mm participated in this study. The subjective and objective assessments of the dentures showed that acrylic denture possessed a better retention than flexible denture. The effect of anterior ridge height on retention, showed a statistically significant difference (p= 0.006 for acrylic denture, p = 0.001 for flexible denture).

Conclusion: This study suggested that acrylic denture possesses better retention compared to the flexible type and far better in situation with lower ridge heights.