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Published on: January 28, 2020
Does a prosthodontist spend more time providing mandibular two-implant overdentures than conventional dentures?
Yoshiaki Takanashi1, John R Penrod, Antoine Chehade
1Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B2, Canada.
Purpose:
In this article, the time taken by a prosthodontist to fabricate and maintain mandibular overdentures retained by two implants and conventional dentures is compared.
Materials And Methods:
Sixty edentulous patients between the ages of 65 and 75 completed a randomized clinical trial. All received new maxillary conventional dentures and either a mandibular conventional denture (n = 30) or a two-implant overdenture on ball attachments (n = 30). The time spent by the prosthodontist and the number of visits required for treatment, including both scheduled and unscheduled visits, were recorded for each patient from preliminary impressions to 6 months following delivery. Data from the two groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests.
Results:
The prosthodontist spent a mean total time of 296 minutes in treating an implant overdenture patient and 282 minutes on a conventional denture patient during the period from preliminary impressions to the 6-month follow-up. The mean numbers of appointments were 10.1 (implant group) and 10.8 (conventional group). These differences were not significant.
Conclusion:
Although additional knowledge is required to treat patients with implant prostheses, the time required by the prosthodontist to provide two-implant mandibular overdentures with ball attachments was not significantly different than the time needed for conventional denture treatment.
