Masticatory performance and chewing experience with implant-retained mandibular overdentures

The relationship between masticatory performance and chewing experience has not yet been explored for patients with implant-retained overdentures. Alt hough many relationships have been found between parameters of objective an d subjective oral function, the structure of these relationships remain unc lear. Therefore, we studied in a randomized clinical trial the relationship between the comminution of an artificial test food, i.e. masticatory perfo rmance, and the subjective chewing experience. The trial involved a compari son between two groups receiving implant treatment and one group receiving conventional complete dentures (CD). The implant treatment involved either a mainly implant-supported mandibular overdenture on a transmandibular impl ant (TMI) or an implant-tissue-supported mandibular overdenture on two IMZ implants (IMZ). Masticatory performance as well as chewing experience were substantially better for the implant-retained overdentures compared with th e complete denture group. No significant differences emerged between the TM I and the IMZ group. A multiple regression analysis did not provide any com prehensibility in the relationship between masticatory performance and the variables of chewing experience. In the linear structural relation analysis (LISREL) no direct relationship was found between masticatory performance and functional complaints mandibular denture. The results show that an impr ovement in masticatory performance does not imply the same improvement in c hewing experience and vice versa.