Prognosis of overdenture abutments in the aged: effect of denture wearing habits.

Abstract

The effect of denture wearing habits was studied in 35 overdenture wearers (20 day-and-night wearers, 15 day-wearers) during a period of 3 yr with controlled oral hygiene. Prior to prosthetic treatment intensive instruction and motivation in oral hygiene were carried out and the patients were recalled 2-4 times yearly during the study period. Before treatment mean Plaque Index (PlI) and Gingival Index (GI) were 1.5 and 1.6, respectively, in both groups of patients. At day 0, 1 yr, 2 yr and 3 yr mean PlI and GI were 0.3-0.5 and 0.6-0.8, respectively, in the group of day-wearers and 0.5-1.0 and 1.0-1.2, respectively, in the group of day-and-night wearers. This difference was statistically significant. Furthermore, during the study period 16% of the abutment tooth surfaces showed attachment loss (1-4 mm) in the group of day-and-night wearers against 7% of the tooth surfaces in the group of day-wearers. This difference was statistically significant. During the 3 yr 36 carious lesions developed in the group of day-and-night wearers, but none in the group of day-wearers. The results of this study have shown that day-and-night wearing of dentures is a major periodontitis and caries risk factor in complete overdenture wearers with controlled oral hygiene.