Digital denture with mucostatic base and functional borders: A cast-free digital technique

Area of Science:

• Dentistry
• Prosthodontics
• Digital Dentistry

Background:

• Digital complete dentures using mucostatic impressions (e.g., intraoral scans) benefit residual ridge stability.
• Mucostatic impressions may offer less initial retention compared to mucocompressive impressions.
• Border molding can improve initial denture retention and patient adaptation, especially with neuromuscular dysfunction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a cast-free digital workflow for fabricating complete dentures.
• To combine the benefits of mucostatic impressions for ridge stability with functional border molding for enhanced retention.

Main Methods:

• Demonstration of a cast-free digital workflow for complete denture fabrication.
• Utilizing intraoral scans for a mucostatic intaglio surface.
• Incorporating functional border molding to improve retention.

Main Results:

• The presented workflow aims to achieve a desirable combination of a mucostatic intaglio surface and functional borders.
• This approach seeks to balance long-term residual ridge stability with improved initial denture retention.

Conclusions:

• A cast-free digital workflow can facilitate the fabrication of complete dentures with both mucostatic intaglio surfaces and functional borders.
• This technique may improve patient adaptation to new dentures by enhancing retention while preserving residual ridge stability.