The effect of remount procedures on patient comfort for complete denture treatment.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Occlusal disharmony due to processing can cause discomfort to the patient.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this investigation was to identify whether refinement in occlusion was correlated with patient comfort and the number of postinsertion visits.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Maxillary and mandibular complete dentures were fabricated for 30 subjects who were randomly divided into 3 groups of 10 subjects using a lottery: Group LCRO, the control group, received both laboratory and clinical remount procedures along with occlusal corrections; Group LRO subjects received only laboratory remount with occlusal corrections; and Group OOC subjects underwent routine procedures in complete denture construction without remount corrections and only occlusal corrections where required, intraorally. A pilot study was conducted to identify the feasibility of a close-ended questionnaire designed by the investigator and containing 5 questions regarding the comfort, pain, masticatory ability, swallowing, and occlusal contacts of maxillary and mandibular complete dentures. The evaluation was performed following the subject's use of the dentures for 7 days. All 30 subjects were examined for tissue irritation at this time. The evaluation was conducted by a single examiner who was unaware of the groups to which the subjects belonged. An analysis of statistical difference between the treatment groups for the number of postinsertion visits, comfort, pain during mastication, swallowing, and areas of tissue irritation during use of complete dentures was assessed using the chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis test (alpha =.05).

RESULTS

The results indicated that remount procedures and occlusal corrections significantly reduced the number of postinsertion visits (Kruskal-Wallis test, P<.001). There was less pain during mastication in group LCRO compared to the other groups (Kruskal-Wallis test, P=.0399). Group LCRO subjects also reported less incidence of tissue irritation compared to group LRO and group OOC (chi2=18.26, P<.001)

CONCLUSIONS

The combination of laboratory and clinical remount procedures with occlusal corrections enhanced patient comfort, compared to the other groups in which either one or both of the procedures were not performed.