Follow-up visits as a measure of adaptation process to removable prostheses

The paper was aimed to establish the influence of some general and local factors on adaptation process to removable prostheses (RPs). The adaptation process is a complex issue, which is often associated with painful reactions. Those complaints force patients to visit a dentist who makes alterations to reduce the patient's discomfort.

The study involved analysis of 300 dental records of patients who visited our Department for RPs. The authors analysed the influence of gender, age, condition of general health, maintenance of the prosthetic base tissues and the kind of prostheses on the process of adaptation. It was measured by means of a number of follow-up visits of the patients to our polyclinic. The findings were analysed statistically by means of chi-squared test. The level of significance was assumed to be p < 0.05.

Adaptation to RPs without any correction was revealed by about one-fifth of patients. Men adapted to RPs better than women. The biggest problems with adaptation to RPs were observed in patients using a complete and partial prosthesis simultaneously. The number of follow-up visits by patients who were treated with RPs for the first time or had been treated before was almost the same. Adaptation of RPs on an atrophic muco-osseous ridge was associated with more multiple visits than in the case of a well-preserved ridge. Healthy patients adapt to RPs better than patients with systemic disorders. Taking into account the limitations of the study, the number of follow-up visits may be used as a helpful indicator of the adaptation process.