Complete denture problem solving: a survey

An investigation was carried out into the problems experienced by 114 referred patients with complete dentures who were considered to be difficult or to have difficult prosthodontic problems. The commonest problems were those of pain and lack of retention, due mainly to occlusal discrepancies and excessive VDO. Treatment was carried out on an individual basis with a large proportion of dentures being remade. However, a small number was satisfied by counselling alone without procedural treatment. A diagnostic denture technique was used for particularly difficult cases. This technique showed that, in two cases, technical prosthodontic inadequacies could definitively be excluded as the problem. The overall success rate for treatment was 80 per cent. Further studies on a larger patient sample are needed so that specific problems can be linked to cause and outcome in a meaningful manner.