Discuss before fabricating: communicating the realities of partial denture therapy. Part I: patient expectations

During planning for treatment involving cast removable partial dentures (RPDs), it is important to remember that the 2 major reasons why patients seek this treatment are to improve esthetics and to improve mastication. Treatment that is considered unsuccessful may not necessarily represent poor execution of procedures, but rather may not have fulfilled the patient's expectations with regard to these 2 goals. Searches of the Cochrane Collaboration and MEDLINE databases were conducted to identify issues pertaining to patient compliance in wearing cast RPDs. Compliance was better when the patient's chief concern was replacement of anterior teeth. The success of RPDs for replacement of teeth missing from other areas depended on the patient's perception of the value of such replacement. Maximum masticatory efficiency is equivalent for people functioning from second premolar to second premolar and those wearing partial dentures. Many clinicians believe that the prescription of partial dentures which replace teeth missing distally to the second premolars represents overtreatment.