Preventing ceramic failures when integrating fixed and removable prostheses.

The successful integration of fixed and removable units requires diagnostic skill, careful planning, and adherence to detail in execution. Failures can be either in function or esthetics, may occur in either the fixed or removable segment, and can be catastrophic or insidious. Success demands that all the customary requirements for each independent unit, fixed or removable, be met and then the additional requirements for integration be ascertained and fulfilled. In such situations there are an exponentially greater number of possibilities for failure. When the dentist is alert to the potential for failure he may intercept and prevent it. Meticulous care pays long-term dividends in the lasting satisfaction of a patient who enjoys imporved masticatory performance, preservation of the existing tissues, and self-confidence borne from a smile that does not reveal differences between the natural and the simulation of nature. The integration of fixed and removable units is another manifestation of the skillful blending of science and art.