Biting and chewing in overdentures, full dentures, and natural dentitions

It has been suggested that the provision of dental implants can improve the oral function of subjects with severely resorbed mandibles, possibly resto ring function to the level experienced by satisfied wearers of conventional complete dentures. Nevertheless, a quantitative comparison has never been made and can be drawn from the literature only with difficulty, since studi es differ greatly in methodology. To make such a comparison, we measured bi te force and chewing efficiency by using identical methods in subjects with overdentures, complete full dentures, and natural dentitions. Our results indicated that bite forces achieved with overdentures on dental implants we re between those achieved with artificial and natural dentitions. Chewing e fficiency was significantly greater than that of subjects with full denture s (low mandible), but was still lower than that of subjects with full dentu res (high mandible) and overdentures on bare roots. Differences in the heig ht of the mandible revealed significant differences in chewing efficiency b etween the two full-denture groups. Furthermore, subjects with a shortened dental arch exerted bite forces similar to those of subjects with a complet e-natural dentition, but their chewing efficiency was limited due to the re duced occlusal area. For all groups combined, a significant correlation was found between maximum bite force and chewing efficiency. Nearly hair of th e variation in chewing efficiency was explained by bite force alone.