Differences two years after tooth extraction in mandibular bone reduction in patients treated with immediate...

In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 74 patients who required immediate dentures were randomly treated with immediate overdentures on two lower canines or with immediate complete dentures. Mandibular bone reduction was measured by use of oblique lateral cephalometric radiographs made at baseline and the results compared with those of one year and two years after denture treatment. Analysis of the data showed that the average bone reduction in the lower canine regions in the first year was 0.9 mm in the immediate-overdenture group and 1.8 mm in the immediate complete-denture group. In the posterior parts of the mandible, the bone reductions were, respectively, 0.7 mm and 1.9 mm. The differences were statistically significant in all measured regions. During the second year, no significant differences in bone reduction were found. The sums of differences in the first two years were significant in all regions except the molar region, preserving the initial difference. Retention of roots of canines beneath a mandibular denture in immediate denture patients, even when they were in poor condition, reduced the collapse of the alveolar processes in all regions of the mandible.