The functional deformation of maxillary complete dentures in patients with flabby alveolar ridges. Part I: Before...

Using strain-guaged duplicate maxillary dentures, the deformation patterns and magnitude of functional strain were studied on five complete denture wearing subjects who had varying amounts of soft mobile tissue over their maxillary edentulous alveolar ridge so called flabby ridges. The thickness of mobile tissue--expressed as depth--was measured by a sharpened periodontal probe with aid of a plastic base plate as a locator. The functional test included maximum biting, and the chewing of three test food samples. The results did not point on any direct relationship between the thickness of the soft tissue and the midline deformation pattern and/or magnitude of functional strain. It seems, however, as if the main influence of mobile tissue is on the strain behaviour in the lateral part of the denture.