ON FUNCTIONAL STRAIN IN FIXED AND REMOVABLE PARTIAL DENTURES - AN EXPERIMENTAL IN-VIVO STUDY

Three rosette strain gauges were attached to a fixed bilateral cantile vered crossarch maxillary bridge and one linear strain gauge to an att achment-retained removable partial denture (RPD), to study the functio nal deformation pattern in this combined reconstruction. The deformati on under clinical conditions at maximum habitual biting and at maximum unilateral loading was very complex, with both elongation and contrac tion in different parts of the fixed reconstruction. Even though this complexity in the functional deformation was found both with and witho ut the RPD incorporated, the RPD seemed to provide a more even and fav orable distribution of the masticatory forces in the fixed reconstruct ion.