Assessment of Retention of Implant Bearing Mandibular Overdentures with Various Attachments: A Three-Year Follow-Up

Mandibular dentures are considered dubious in terms of retention in resorbed ridges. Implant bearing overdentures can be a solution to the abovesaid issue. Various attachments in use offer variations in retention and maintenance. The aim was to assess long term durability and retention of implant supported overdenture attachments. Two implant bearing overdentures were placed in 20 patients. Magnet and ball attachment were used and dentures were evaluated over a period of three years at different time intervals. Difference of attachments' performance between intervals was assessed with ANOVA test and Tukey HSD post hoc test and the level of significance was set at p<0.05. There was a decline in retention throughout research period in both categories; the ball and socket batch showed statistically significant (P<0.05) better retention force compared to that of magnet group. There was lesser decline in mean retention force of 10.97N±0.82 to 7.24N±0.903 from one month to three years in magnet attachment retained overdentures. Ball attachments offer better retentive forces than magnet category. Magnet bearing overdentures offer more durability in terms of retention.