Survival Analysis and Prevalence of Biologic and Technical Complications in Fully Edentulous Patients Rehabilitated with Different Modalities of Complete Dentures: A Retrospective Study in Zurich.

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of biologic and technical/mechanical complications in an edentulous older population rehabilitated with complete removable dental prostheses (CDs) and overdentures (toothretained [ODs], implant-retained [IODs]).

Materials and methods: Patient records of adults (> 60 years) rehabilitated with CDs, ODs, and IODs were included. Demographic information (age, sex), information on the prostheses type, number and type of biologic/prosthetic complications, and the number and time of the complications were extracted. Kaplan-Meier model was used for statistical analyses.

Results: A total of 162 patients (mean age: 74.5 ± 9.45 years; n = 224 prostheses: CD = 172, OD = 21, IOD = 31) were included. The average period of function in situ was 19.70 ± 27.66, 32.72 ± 27.84, and 31.73 ± 32.67 months for the CDs, ODs, and IODs, respectively. Five prostheses failed. Survival analysis revealed an overall survival rate (SR) of 97.8%, with individual 5-year cumulative survival probability of 96.1% for CDs, 94.1% for ODs, and 100.0% for IODs. There were no significant survival differences between maxillary and mandibular prostheses within each type of rehabilitation. In the maxilla, no significant differences were found in maintenance visit times due to prosthodontic complications among the different types of prostheses. Patients with mandibular CDs required maintenance visits earlier compared to mandibular ODs (P < .001) and IODs (P < .001). Patients with mandibular ODs also required maintenance visits earlier than those with mandibular IODs (P = .005).

Conclusions: Rehabilitation of the edentulous arches, whether with CDs, ODs, or IODs, is a predictable treatment modality with high SRs. Differences in maintenance visit times were observed, with CDs and ODs in the mandible requiring earlier visits compared to IODs.