Studies on the effects of the spillway on the occlusal table of complete dentures upon the bearing of masticatory force.

We studied the effect of spillways in the posterior artificial teeth of complete dentures in reducing masticatory pressure on the basal mucosa by making completely edentulous patients masticate food. Using two kinds of experimental dentures, one with spillways on the occlusal table and the other without, five subjects wearing complete dentures were instructed to masticate four different types of test food. The results showed that the mastication time and the number of masticatory strokes were not much affected by the existence of spillways. However, the masticatory force of artificial teeth with spillways was slightly smaller than that of artificial teeth without spillways.