Exploring Adaptation and Satisfaction in Copied Complete Dentures Regarding Two Different Occlusal Schemes

Purpose: To compare patient adaptation to and satisfaction with new complete dentures fabricated with a duplication construction protocol (DCP) using two different occlusal schemes, bilateral balanced (BBO) and lingualized (LO).

Materials and methods: Twenty complete denture wearers who received replacement DCP dentures participated in this study. Ten participants received complete dentures with a BBO scheme, and the other 10 received DCP dentures with an LO scheme. All of them evaluated their prostheses subjectively through the Oral Health Impact Profile-20 (OHIP-20) and the Complete Denture Satisfaction (CDS) questionnaires before treatment and at 3- and 6-month posttreatment intervals. The new prostheses were also normatively evaluated by recording the location and number of sore spots present at the scheduled early adjustment visits. Data were analyzed with nonparametric tests to identify differences in patient responses between groups and within each group at each evaluation interval point (α = .05).

Results: The within-group comparisons revealed statistically significant improvement for both denture groups (P < .05), while the between-group comparisons did not record statistically significant differences at the overall evaluation period (P > .05). Significant within-group differences were recorded in the pain, functional limitation, and psychologic disability domains of the OHIP-20 questionnaire and the comfort, esthetics, and stability domains of the CDS questionnaire.

Conclusion: The patients' adaptation to and satisfaction with newly constructed DCP dentures improved significantly for both BBO and LO denture groups throughout the evaluation period. The mean number of early adjustment visits was equal for both the BBO and LO denture groups.