Patient-Reported Outcomes and Clinical Performance of CAD/CAM Removable Dentures: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Dental prosthetics
• Digital dentistry
• Biomaterials

Background:

• Conventional dentures face challenges in terms of fabrication time and cost.
• Patient and clinician satisfaction are key metrics for evaluating denture success.
• Advancements in digital dentistry offer potential improvements in denture fabrication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the literature on patient- and clinician-reported outcomes for CAD/CAM removable complete and partial dentures.
• To compare the efficacy of CAD/CAM dentures with conventionally fabricated dentures.

Main Methods:

• An extensive electronic literature search was conducted across major databases (CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science) up to March 2023.
• Included studies encompassed clinical trials and observational studies on CAD/CAM removable dentures, both conventional and implant-retained.
• A total of 58 studies were selected from 4,035 initial records.

Main Results:

• CAD/CAM dentures demonstrated significant time and resource savings compared to conventional methods.
• Patient and clinician-reported outcomes for CAD/CAM dentures were generally non-inferior or superior to conventional dentures.
• Further consensus is required regarding which CAD/CAM workflow minimizes adjustments and postoperative sessions.

Conclusions:

• CAD/CAM technology offers considerable time and cost efficiencies in removable denture fabrication.
• Patient and clinician experiences with CAD/CAM dentures are comparable to or better than conventional prostheses.
• High-quality randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are necessary to solidify these findings due to the current low evidence level.