COMPARISON OF 4 DIFFERENT DENTURE CUSHION ADHESIVES - A SUBJECTIVE STUDY

Four cushion adhesives (Fittydent I; Fittydent II, introduced as an ad vanced formula; Protefix; and Seabond) were compared clinically throug h patients subjective evaluations. Maxillary dentures of 32 patients w ere relined and the mandibular dentures were scored by Kapur index bef ore the application of different treatments. The cushion adhesives wer e used only with the existing mandibular prosthesis. The four treatmen ts were applied to the patients in groups of 8 by allocating each grou p randomly to one of the four sequences of treatments determined by la tin square design. Each patient took each treatment only once. The adh esives were applied by the authors as recommended by the manufacturers . Patients used each material for 24 h and, through a questionnaire, t hey evaluated the seven following aspects of each different cushion ma terial: retention, duration of retention, effects on ability to chew, effects on other oral functions, cleansing of dentures, cleansing of g ums, and an overall evaluation of materials. Both Fittydent products s ignificantly improved denture retention and the ability to chew. The p atients who expressed 'much better' chewing with Fittydent products, h ad mandibular dentures rated poor or fair.