Veterans Administration Cooperative Dental Implant Study--comparisons between fixed partial dentures supported by...

Good scientific evidence is lacking on the impact of improvement in masticatory function after prosthodontic restoration of missing teeth.

This study compares 1-week dietary intakes of 218 healthy, male patients, 111 patients restored with mandibular unilateral or bilateral distal base extension removable partial dentures and 107 patients with fixed partial dentures.

Dietary logs recorded before the initiation of treatment and 6-months after the baseline period after partial denture treatment were analyzed for 30 nutritional variables of food intakes including total calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, and a number of vitamins and minerals.

Both before and after treatment, intakes of various nutrients were more than 25% above or below the RDAs for approximately half of the patients in both groups. No significant differences were observed between the mean scores of the two groups for any of the 30 variables either before or after treatment. However, beneficial treatment effects were seen in subsets of patients with low and high caloric intakes at entry. Both treatments increased the intakes of calories and 27 nutrients in the low caloric group and decreased the intakes of calories and 27 nutrients in the high caloric group. The decreases in the caloric intake and eight nutrients, including total protein, fat, carbohydrates, and cholesterol, were significantly greater (p < 0.05) in the fixed partial denture group than those in the removable partial denture group.

These beneficial effects of partial dentures, if verified by other studies, may have profound clinical implications for the undernourished and obese patients.