Complete Dentures in Academia: Bridging Tradition and Innovation

Over the years, educators have repeatedly questioned the relevance of complete denture education. The evolution of implants, shrinking curriculum time, and lack of patients have helped drive this sentiment. An aging population with complex medical needs and socioeconomic backgrounds are most likely to need removable complete dentures. Over the years, prosthodontic educators have come up with many creative and innovative solutions, including the treatment of standardized patients to overcome this multi-faceted challenge. Despite their efforts, dental students are graduating with low confidence in their abilities to provide removable prosthodontic services. Integration of digital denture technologies in complete denture curricula is having a transformative impact on academia. As technology evolves, the initial apprehension of adoption is slowly being replaced by a broader understanding of the benefits of digital technology in solving issues like maximizing curriculum time and minimizing chair time through customized workflows. Technology-savvy students are readily embracing digital denture training, leading to improved understanding of conventional workflow concepts, learning digital software skills, and gaining clinical confidence. While infrastructure, faculty training, laboratory and technical support continue to challenge institutions globally, educators recognize that digital workflows will eventually outpace conventional. As private clinical practices are transitioning to become digitally equipped, there is an acknowledged responsibility to graduate dental students to be practice ready in both digital and conventional denture workflows. Education must continually evolve to meet modern needs with modern solutions, since the need for removable complete denture treatment is not going away.