Oral health-related quality of life: acrylic versus flexible partial dentures

Teeth lost are usually replaced by all-acrylic removable partial dentures (RPD) because of its affordability and ease of fabrication. The all-acrylic RPD is said to cause significant periodontal injury and consequently affect the oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) of denture wearers.

To determine and compare OHRQoL of all-acrylic and flexible RPD wearers at baseline and after use of dentures.

Study was quasi-experimental using a cross-over design, involving 30 patients with Kennedy class IV and anterior class III arches. Patient recruitment and review were done over an eight-month period in the Prosthetic Unit of a tertiary health facility. OHRQoL was assessed with the oral health impact profile-14 questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive and multivariate analysis at asignificant level of p <.05.

Mean age of patients was 33.8 ±10.0 years; at baseline, patient reported occasionally, fairly often or very often for 11(78.6%) OHIP items. However, after using the acrylic and flexible partial dentures, 11(36.6%) patients reported having trouble pronouncing words and 9(30.0%) found it uncomfortable to eat respectively. At baseline, there was a difference in mean OHIP scores with age (p=.02); scores reduced from 12.4 ± 9.8 to 4.8±5.3 (CI= 3.3-12.0, p=.001) after using the all-acrylic denture and 3.8±5.6 (CI= 4.3-13.0, p<.001) with the flexible denture.

There was improvement in the OHRQoL of patients with use of flexible partial dentures. Therefore, thermoplastic materials are possible alternative RPD base materials in patient management.

None declared.