Benefits of rehabilitation with implants in masticatory function: is patient perception of change in accordance with the real improvement?

This study aimed to compare the index of satisfaction and masticatory function of edentulous patients before and after rehabilitation and to evaluate if patients' perception of the changes in their oral health status is in agreement with the results of masticatory performance test. Fourteen edentulous patients were rehabilitated with lower implant-supported fixed prosthesis and upper removable dentures. Index of satisfaction and masticatory capacity (subjective analysis) and performance test (objective analysis) were evaluated before and 20 days and 8 months after rehabilitation. The patients were asked to respond a yes/no masticatory capacity questionnaire and to rate their oral satisfaction on a 0 to 10 Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Masticatory performance test comprised the ability of the individual to pulverize an artificial test food (Optocal), after 20 and 40 masticatory strokes. When baseline answers were compared to answers 8 months after treatment, all questions, excepting the ones that considered pain and social disability, were statistically different. Wilcoxon test was used to compare index of satisfaction before and after treatment. All answers showed statistically significant differences, excluding the one that referred to ease of cleaning the prostheses. Considering the masticatory performance test, Student t test (normally distributed) and Wilcoxon test (non-normally distributed) were used to test the null hypothesis that the weight of the particles of the test food left in sieves were equal in all times of evaluation. In the larger sieve with 20 cycles, statistically significant differences were observed between baseline and 8 months, 20 days and 8 months. With 40 strokes, baseline and 20 days, baseline and 8 months and 20 days and 8 months showed significant differences. It was concluded that oral rehabilitation leads to better masticatory function in edentulous patients and there is a coincidence between patient perception and real improvement on masticatory function.