Purpose: The World Health Organization estimated edentulism rates ranging from 6 to 69% all over the world, and from 15% to 78% in Europe. In Italy, edentulism is more diffuse among women, especially from the age of 70. Since, women with an average age of 75 or above may reach rates of up to 52.2%, against the 47.6% of men. Non-rehabilitated edentulous people represent a scarce percentage in our country, only the 5% between over 70s. Total conventional removable prostheses remain the main treatment for edentulism, even though alternative techniques such as implant-prosthesis exist. Our study evaluated the patients’ masticatory efficiency and the quality of both superior and inferior total mobile removable prostheses implanted in those 12 individuals. Furthermore, the relationship between prosthesis quality, prosthesis age and masticatory strength and efficiency has been taken into consideration. Materials and methods: Our study analysed total removable superior and inferior prosthetic rehabilitation in 12 completely edentulous patient cured by the Dental School’s prosthesis department of Bari University. Our analytic methods comprehended: state evaluation criteria to assess objective prosthesis quality; subjective questionnaire about masticatory ability; colour mixing test, a colorimetric test of the chewing gum with double colour to evaluate masticatory efficiency. We found a direct connection between prosthesis quality, prosthesis age and masticatory efficiency. The subjective evaluation questionnaires gave a general idea about patient's masticatory ability, although biased towards the adaptation level of each patient. The relation between prosthesis’ quality and its age-related usage has highlighted a decrease in total removable prostheses’ quality accompanied by its increasing age-related usage. Results: From the colorimetric test, we can infer that the analysed masticatory efficiency is correlated with prosthesis quality and age. The data obtained about the prosthesis’ quality are based on subjective evaluation through a questionnaire, which is influenced by the adaptation of the patient’s alimentary habits over time; the questionnaire consistedin asking the patient about the difficulty level in chewing food of low, medium or hard consistency. Patients tend to substitute aliments they cannot chew/ingest with another aliment. Our study has emphasised a correlation in the relationship between the prosthesis’ quality and its age-related usage, showing a decrease in the total mobile prosthesis’ quality accompanied by its increased age-related usage. In particular, the quality is noticeably reduced after 10 years, which can be considered the average life of a prosthetic artefact if exposed to periodic checkups and maintenance. Conclusions: Prosthesis quality needs to be evaluated over a wider range of cases. Hopefully in the near future, both quality evaluation criteria of total mobile prosthesis and the test to determine their masticatory efficiency will be effectively and broadly used in an objective manner, with the goal of improving prosthesis performances.

Evaluation of prosthetic quality and masticatory efficiency in patients with total removable prosthesis: study of 12 cases.

Corsalini M;Di Venere D;De Giacomo A;Laforgia A;Rapone B
2018-01-01

Abstract

Purpose: The World Health Organization estimated edentulism rates ranging from 6 to 69% all over the world, and from 15% to 78% in Europe. In Italy, edentulism is more diffuse among women, especially from the age of 70. Since, women with an average age of 75 or above may reach rates of up to 52.2%, against the 47.6% of men. Non-rehabilitated edentulous people represent a scarce percentage in our country, only the 5% between over 70s. Total conventional removable prostheses remain the main treatment for edentulism, even though alternative techniques such as implant-prosthesis exist. Our study evaluated the patients’ masticatory efficiency and the quality of both superior and inferior total mobile removable prostheses implanted in those 12 individuals. Furthermore, the relationship between prosthesis quality, prosthesis age and masticatory strength and efficiency has been taken into consideration. Materials and methods: Our study analysed total removable superior and inferior prosthetic rehabilitation in 12 completely edentulous patient cured by the Dental School’s prosthesis department of Bari University. Our analytic methods comprehended: state evaluation criteria to assess objective prosthesis quality; subjective questionnaire about masticatory ability; colour mixing test, a colorimetric test of the chewing gum with double colour to evaluate masticatory efficiency. We found a direct connection between prosthesis quality, prosthesis age and masticatory efficiency. The subjective evaluation questionnaires gave a general idea about patient's masticatory ability, although biased towards the adaptation level of each patient. The relation between prosthesis’ quality and its age-related usage has highlighted a decrease in total removable prostheses’ quality accompanied by its increasing age-related usage. Results: From the colorimetric test, we can infer that the analysed masticatory efficiency is correlated with prosthesis quality and age. The data obtained about the prosthesis’ quality are based on subjective evaluation through a questionnaire, which is influenced by the adaptation of the patient’s alimentary habits over time; the questionnaire consistedin asking the patient about the difficulty level in chewing food of low, medium or hard consistency. Patients tend to substitute aliments they cannot chew/ingest with another aliment. Our study has emphasised a correlation in the relationship between the prosthesis’ quality and its age-related usage, showing a decrease in the total mobile prosthesis’ quality accompanied by its increased age-related usage. In particular, the quality is noticeably reduced after 10 years, which can be considered the average life of a prosthetic artefact if exposed to periodic checkups and maintenance. Conclusions: Prosthesis quality needs to be evaluated over a wider range of cases. Hopefully in the near future, both quality evaluation criteria of total mobile prosthesis and the test to determine their masticatory efficiency will be effectively and broadly used in an objective manner, with the goal of improving prosthesis performances.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/228346
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