Facial aesthetic evaluation of rehabilitation effects in edentulous patients with varying degrees of residual ridge resorption by 3D stereophotogrammetry.

Abstract

Residual ridge resorption impairs patients' satisfaction with complete denture (CD) treatment, but influence of bone resorption on the aesthetic rehabilitation of edentulous patients still remains unclear due to insufficient quantitative investigations. To quantitatively evaluate the effects of residual ridge resorption on facial aesthetic reconstruction in elderly edentulous patients. According to radiological examination, a total of 19 edentulous subjects were categorised into two groups, atrophic patients (APs) and non-atrophic patients (NAPs). Before CD treatment and 3months after treatment, patients were asked to complete the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES). The changes in facial appearance were measured by 3D stereophotogrammetry, and the facial parameters of two groups were compared. The patient's subjective satisfaction of oro-facial aesthetics and 3D objective assessment of facial appearance improved after CD treatment. Subnasale-gnathion (Sn-Gn) significantly increased from 60.13±3.91mm to 62.27±3.82mm. After rehabilitation, glabella-subnasale (G-Sn)/Sn-Gn, nasolabial (Cm-Sn-Ls) and mentolabial (Li-Sm-Pg) significantly decreased and were closer to normal values. Moreover, the subtraction value between G-Sn/Sn-Gn and normal value before treatment of APs and NAPs was 14.47±8.04% and 6.94±3.69%, respectively (P=.026), while after treatment, the values decreased to 10.61±6.33% and 3.86±2.31% (P=.013), respectively. The increased volume of lips and cheeks played an important role in the facial aesthetic reconstruction of edentulous patients. NAPs tended to have more attractive faces after CD treatment, as their facial profile parameters (G-Sn/Sn-Gn and Cm-Sn-Ls) were closer to normal Chinese with well-balanced faces.