Effectiveness of a clinical pathway for complete denture adjustment.

Abstract

This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of a developed clinical pathway (CP) to determine the sequence of dental treatment in patients who are edentulous and use maxillary and mandibular complete dentures. Sixty-two edentulous patients with maxillary and mandibular complete dentures were randomly allocated either to with (31 subjects) or without (31 subjects) a CP. The main categories of the CP were the examination, instructions, practice, idle time, evaluation sheet, preparation, and other steps. The subcategories were made with respect to the main categories. The participants were categorized as dentists, assistants, or patients. There was no significant difference in mean chair time between with a CP (27.5 min) and without a CP (28.0 min). The CP led to a significant reduction in idle time (waiting in the chair or no treatment) of dentists, assistants, and patients. In contrast, the instances of medical examination, patients' instructions, and the number of patients reporting improvement of symptoms significantly increased. These results indicated that there is an opportunity to improve the complete denture treatment with a CP.