Comparison of manual and physiologically molded denture bases in complete denture wearers

In complete denture wearers, the accumulation of food in the buccal vestibule is one of the factors causing discomfort to the patient. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of mandibular denture buccal flange on food retention and to correlate between varying angulations of buccal flange of mandibular denture on food retention.

Complete dentures were fabricated and the mandibular complete denture was duplicated. The existing (unduplicated) manually molded and physiologically molded dentures were tested for food retention. Twenty test particles having a diameter of 2±0.2 mm were placed on the middle part of the buccal flange and the subjects were instructed to expel the test particles by performing only functional movements of the buccal musculature. The numbers of residual test particles in the buccal vestibule were counted after 30s. The angulations of the denture buccal flange (duplicated) were measured with an optical bevel protractor and trimmed to 50° and the food retention test was performed. Similar tests were performed at 60°, 70° and 80° angulations. The data were evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient, One-way ANOVA test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.

The difference between the residual scores of manually molded and physiologically molded denture base was not significant. The difference between the residual scores at different angulations of the buccal flange of the denture was significant.

Only the slope of the flange significantly affects the ability of subjects to expel the test particles.