Effects of tongue movements on lingual sulcus depth while border molding in mandibular complete dentures

In general, people speak and swallow frequently in their daily lives rather than making exaggerated tongue movements.

The aim was to compare the effect of tongue movements on lingual sulcus depth, during the border molding process of impression making of mandibular complete dentures.

In total, 32 double master impressions were made. One of these pairs was obtained by allowing the patient to swallow and the other by enabling the tongue to make excessive movements.

Measurements were taken from different regions of the lingual sulcus by determining the length of the parallel lines drawn from fixed points marked on the residual ridge crest to the deepest point of the alveolingual sulcus. These measurements were performed using a RMI three-dimensional measurement system.

Data were compared using the paired t-test (alpha = 0.05).

The high value found in casts with border molding, while swallowing was statistically significant in vertical and horizontal directions of the anterior lingual sulcus region (<0.001), vertical direction of the middle lingual sulcus region (MLSR) (<0.05) and horizontal direction of the retromylohyoid and MLSR (<0.05). According to the paired t-test, the mean differences between the 32 casts were statistically significant (<0.001). Within the limitations of this study, the swallowing in the vertical and horizontal directions provided higher values compared to the excessive movement of the tongue.