Restoration of the severely compromised maxilla using the multi-cup denture

Among the millions of edentulous Americans, a persistent minority have not been able to tolerate wearing dentures. Complicating factors may have precluded surgical intervention with grafts or dental implants to improve the physical and anatomic limitations of these unfortunate patients. A heat-cured polymer liner containing multiple small suction cups has been used for decades to successfully restore many such debilitated individuals. Two middle-aged female patients with edentulous maxillae and near fully dentate mandibles had both reached a point where they could no longer retain a maxillary complete denture, or function with it. Both had experienced multiple failed surgical attempts to improve their situations. They were both successfully restored with maxillary complete dentures containing heat-cured silicone liners with multiple small suction cups. Two young female maxillectomy patients had significant difficulties wearing maxillary obturators due to defect size and absence of defect undercuts. One had an edentulous maxilla, while the other had no axial undercuts on her few remaining maxillary teeth. Without an obturator, both suffered considerable air and fluid leaks, unintelligible speech, and swallowing problems. They too were successfully restored with obturators containing a heat-cured, multi-cup, silicone liner. The multi-cup, silicone denture liner has offered an economic, noninvasive alternative for patients unable or unwilling to undergo surgical intervention to facilitate prosthesis retention.