PROSTHETIC CONDITION AND PATIENTS JUDGMENT OF COMPLETE DENTURES

Purpose. This study introduces the concept ''prosthetic condition'', w hich combines the quality of complete dentures and residual alveolar r idges. Material and methods. A pilot study was performed to select qua lity criteria with an acceptable interobserver agreement. With these c riteria, a clinical examination was performed to assess the quality of the existing complete dentures and the residual alveolar ridges of 39 7 complete denture wearers. During clinical examination, the interobse rver agreement of the selected criteria was retested. The ''prosthetic condition'' was assessed by combining the scores for denture quality and quality of the residual alveolar ridges. Subsequently, participant s' satisfaction with and complaints about their dentures were scored a ccording to their answers to specific questions. Results. Logistic reg ression analysis demonstrated that no variable of the ''prosthetic con dition'' proved to explain the denture satisfaction. Some variables of the ''prosthetic condition'' had a significant but not relevant corre lation with some denture complaints. Conclusions. More research is nec essary to substantiate the concept ''prosthetic condition'' as an acce ptable measure of professionally quality assessment of dentures and de nture-bearing surfaces. However, in determining the treatment need of community-dwelling groups, this concept seems a more realistic measure than denture quality only.