THE INFLUENCE OF DENTURE DESIGN ON PATIENT ACCEPTANCE OF PARTIAL DENTURES

A study was designed to investigate the influence of denture design on patient acceptance of partial dentures. A total of 317 patients provi ded with partial dentures by the Department of Prosthodontics, Newcast le Dental School 2-3 years previously, were asked to complete a postal questionnaire about their use of these dentures. Denture status and p artial denture design for these patients was established using hospita l records. Design variables included material, the number and distribu tion of replaced teeth, denture support and connector design. In all, 86% of patients (273) returned the questionnaire. A total of 393 parti al dentures (210 upper, 183 lower) had been constructed for these pati ents; 99 (25%) dentures were never worn and a further 57 (15%) denture s were only worn occasionally. Non-wearers were more likely to have no replacement anterior teeth, fewer replacement teeth and, in the lower , a lingual bar. When a multivariate model including all recorded vari ables was constructed using multiple logistic regression analysis, the presence of anterior replacement teeth for all dentures and the numbe r of replacement teeth for upper dentures were found to be the only si gnificant positive influences on denture wearing. Use of a lingual bar did not influence denture wearing habits.