The quality of the majority of removable partial dentures worn in the United States is remarkably low

Abstract

Summary Subjects The study population was 17,844 adults who had oral0689 exams as part of NHANES III, 1306 of whom wore removable partial dentures. Dental exam data were available for 1303 individuals with removable partial dentures. The study included 1603 removable partial dentures (811 maxillary and 792 mandibular). The age range of the subjects was 17 to 70+. Exposure The presence of a removable partial denture. 0689 Main outcome measure Information regarding defects in removable partial 0689 dentures was obtained from the NHANES III databases. Defects in several categories were noted. Extraoral defect categories included integrity, excessive wear of posterior teeth, and presence of reline/tissue conditioner. Intraoral defect categories included stability and retention. Main results At least 250,000 adults under the age of 40 have removable 0689 partial dentures. In this study, the number of removable partial dentures increased as the age of the patients increased. The number of maxillary removable partial dentures peaked in the 51-to-60 age group, and the number of mandibular removable partial dentures peaked in the 61-to-70 age group. In patients older than 70 years of age, the number of removable partial dentures then decreased with an increase in the number of complete dentures. Only a third of removable partial dentures werefound to be completely satisfactory, with approximately 65% of the dentures having at least 1 defect. Lack of stability was the most common defect noted for both maxillary and mandibular removable partial dentures, followed by tooth wear and lack of integrity. Retention and stability problems were more commonwith maxillary than with mandibular removable partial dentures. However, when patient age was adjusted for, the mandibular removable partial dentures were found to have more problems associated with retention, stability, and relining. Information regarding the age of the removable partial denture was not available.