Longitudinal Assessment of Denture Maintenance Needs in an Overdenture Population.

Purpose: To evaluate the longitudinal denture maintenance needs of a tooth-supported overdenture population.

Materials And Methods: This prospective cohort study was composed of patients who had received tooth-supported overdentures from 1974 to 1994 in the Department of Prosthodontics, University of Iowa. There were 272 persons with 662 abutments who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. To simplify analysis and reduce the number of confounding variables, only those participants wearing complete maxillary dentures and opposing complete mandibular overdentures supported by teeth #22 and #27 were included in this analysis. The denture maintenance needs of these participants were identified and related to age, gender, length of time wearing overdentures, number of medications, and denture-wearing habits. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used for the statistical analysis (α = 0.05).

Results: Of the 91 participants (mean age = 59.5 ± 10.1 years; 63.7% male) who fulfilled the inclusion criteria at baseline, 48.4% took 1 to 3 medications daily, and 84.6% wore their dentures day and night. The percentages of participants who needed one or more of the following denture treatments were: 91.2% denture base adjustments, 76.9% laboratory processed relines, 61.5% denture remakes, 33% laboratory remount and occlusal adjustment, 22% repaired bases, and 19.8% needed denture teeth replaced. Bivariate analyses indicated that participants who were 65 years and older needed more denture adjustments than patients younger than 65 years (p = 0.0343). Participants who had worn overdentures for more than 5 years were more likely to require denture remakes (p = 0.0304). Participants who wore their dentures only during the day were less likely to require repairs (p = 0.0403). Participants who did not take any medications were significantly less likely to require denture base repairs (p = 0.0258). For the 35 participants who returned for recalls at all 4 time points, males were more likely to need denture teeth repaired or replaced (p = 0.0335) and those aged 50 to 64 were more likely to need 2 or more adjustments (p = 0.0311). No overdenture abutments were lost by the participants in this study.

Conclusions: According to the results of this study, age, medication usage, denture-wearing habits, and age of the overdentures were significant factors associated with denture maintenance needs. Persons wearing overdentures need regular recalls, because they have continuing maintenance needs.