Tissue pressure under complete maxillary dentures

This preliminary report has shown the following interesting points: (1) Measurements of tissue pressures beneath dentures are possible using the Sanborn 350 recorder. (2) Stable dentures produce high pressures on the supporting tissues and transmit these pressures from region to region, varying with how the patient uses the dentures. (3) Most often, an opposite large or negative pressure immediately followed the production of positive pressure at the same site beneath the denture. Thus, each movement actually traumatizes the tissue twice. (4) Nonmasticatory pressures produced under dentures are as great as or greater than masticatory pressures. (5) Wave forms for each biting maneuver or sound produced can be charted and are typical for each patient, probably representing denture movement. (6) Swallowing unassociated with eating or drinking produced very high positive and very low negative pressures, giving the greatest ranges of pressures recorded in this experiment. (7) Smoking (recorded in only one patient) also produced a great range of pressures. (8) Sticky foods such as cheddar cheese produced greater negative pressures than the other foods tested. (9) The one patient with natural teeth opposing his denture gave much more uniform and lower pressures than did the patients with complete dentures. (10) This method allows visualization of pressure movement under dentures. The effect of these continually occurring, nonmasticatory, induced pressure changes and pressure waves beneath the dentures may well be of greater significance than that of mastication.