Problems with Complete Dentures and Related Factors in Patients in Rajavithi Hospital from 2007 to 2012

Complete dentures are used to restore masticatory function, improve esthetics, enhance phonetic functionality, and facilitate social communication for edentulous patients. After long-term use, problems can arise because of changes in the patients' condition and because of denture attrition.

To survey problems encountered while using complete dentures, and to evaluate related factors after 3-8 years of use.

One hundred and fourteen participants aged between 56 and 97 years who wore complete dentures supplied by Rajavithi Hospital between 2007 and 2012 were included in the survey. Data were collected via telephone interviews. Details were recorded for baseline characteristics of patients, how and when they used their dentures, how they maintained them, their perception of the condition of their dentures, and the problems that they encountered while using them. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate patient characteristics and Chi-square/Fisher's exact/Student t-tests were used to evaluate correlations between condition of dentures and patient factors. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Half of all participants had problems in using complete dentures, and the most frequent difficulty was denture looseness, which affected about one-third of all patients. Marital status, whether or not participants had children, and time of wearing dentures were significantly related to having problems (p = 0.007, 0.039, and 0.003, respectively).

Many complete denture patients had problems with denture looseness and dentists should recall these patients in a timely manner to help them achieve a better quality of life.