Direct chairside hard reline at delivery of a newly fabricated distal extension removable partial denture:...

The stability of a dental prosthesis is its resistance to displacement when it is subjected to functional, horizontal and rotational stresses. For a removable partial denture (RPD), stability depends greatly on overall quality of fit to the supporting teeth and tissues. There are numerous reasons why the fit of a newly fabricated RPD might be compromised, but it is easy for the dentist to determine visually whether vertical movement is excessive. If finger pressure applied to the distal-most tooth on a distal extension denture base results in lifting of the anterior-most indirect retainer, then the RPD is not stable and either an indirect (laboratory processed) or direct (chairside) hard reline should be carried out. In this paper, we discuss factors that might influence the need to do a direct, chairside hard reline at delivery of a newly fabricated distal extension RPD and we recommend techniques.