Discuss before fabricating: communicating the realities of partial denture therapy. Part II: clinical outcomes

The premise of this review is that patients' satisfaction (and hence compliance) with partial denture therapy may be better if they are more fully informed about the limitations of the prosthesis they are to receive. Neither the dentist nor the patient should assume that all of their respective expectations will be mutually understood and inherently met. By discussing patient-centred issues and predictable clinical outcomes, both dentist and patient will be better prepared to determine whether a removable prosthesis is appropriate. Searches of the Cochrane Collaboration and MEDLINE databases were conducted to identify issues pertaining to patient compliance in wearing cast removable partial dentures. In addition to the 2 most frequent patient concerns, esthetics and mastication, discussed in the first article of this series, additional aspects of concern to the dentist and the patient when considering a removable partial denture include overeruption, post-insertion care, comfort, longevity of the prosthesis, effect on speech and biologic consequences are discussed here.