Effect of home reliner on occlusal relationships and oral mucosa: viscoelastic analyses by smoothed particle...

For decades, many reports have expressed negative opinions about home reliner (HR), because it may result in residual ridge resorption. Recently, some clinical studies evaluated HR. However, the effect of HR on occlusal relationships and the oral mucosa remains unclear. Here, we dynamically analyzed the situation in which a patient applies HR to an upper complete denture.

We numerically simulated the effect of HR on occlusal relationships and the oral mucosa. In the simulation, the thickness of HR was set to 2mm as a proper amount and 4mm as an excessive amount. The loading points were set at the center of the right and left occlusal surfaces of the denture.

Compared with the case without using HR, at proper amounts (2mm on the right and left sides), HR suppressed the depression of the ill-fitting denture, and stress on the oral mucosa was decreased. In the excessive HR model (4mm on the right and left sides), the vertical occlusal dimension was increased, and stress on the oral mucosa originally fitted with the denture base was increased. When the denture was modeled in an inclined position (2mm on the left side and 4mm on the right side), stress on the oral mucosa on the left buccal side was markedly increased.

It was found that when an improper amount of HR was applied, the occlusal vertical dimension increased and the oral mucosa was pressured more than that under non-HR conditions.