An 8-year retrospective study of fixed prosthodontics clinical unit completions in a postgraduate prosthodontics program.

Abstract

The range of aesthetic fixed prosthodontics materials utilizing digital manufacturing techniques has expanded in recent years ostensibly replacing traditional laboratory techniques and materials. This retrospective study conducted over eight consecutive years aimed to analyze the types of laboratory fabricated fixed prosthodontics clinical units completed in a postgraduate prosthodontics specialist training program and determine meaningful trends. The logbooks of eight postgraduate prosthodontics completions from 2014 to 2021 were reviewed and the different types of laboratory fabricated fixed prosthodontics units and total number of fixed prosthodontics units completed were recorded. The data was categorized and presented in tabulated and chart form using Microsoft Excel software (version 2016). Paired t-tests and Mann-Kendall trend tests were performed to analyze for statistical significance between the different restoration types across the program completions. Porcelain bonded to metal (PBM) crowns represented 42.05% of all fixed prosthodontics units completed over all study years followed by all-ceramic crowns (ACC) (18.14%) and full gold crowns (FGC) (10.70%). Jointly, PBM, ACC and FGC's encompassed 70.88% of all fixed prosthodontics units. Over the 8-year study period, there were observed trends of reduced use of PBM's, increased use of ACC's, statistically significant reduced use of FGC's (p = 0.035) and a statistically significant difference in the use of complete and partial coverage restorations (p < 0.001). PBM crowns were the dominant laboratory fabricated fixed prosthodontic clinical unit across postgraduate prosthodontics program completions. The trend in later years indicating ACC as the dominant crown type warrants further investigation.