The satisfaction with the removable partial denture therapy in the Croatian adult population

Little is known about the outcomes of treatment and patient's satisfaction with removable partial dentures in adult Croatian population. Therefore pat ient's satisfaction with their partial dentures in relation to some socio-e conomic variables was studied. Patient's satisfaction with denture retentio n, speech, aesthetics, comfort of wearing dentures,, chewing ability was al so studied in relation to different denture classification, construction, m aterial, denture base shape (major connectors), denture support and the num ber of missing teeth. A total of 165 patients, 59 males and 105 females bet ween 38 and 87 years took part in this study. A questionnaire, devised for a purpose of the study, was divided into three parts. In the first part, pa tients answered questions about age, gender, marital status, education, gen eral health, socio-economic status, self-supporting life, period of tooth l oss and number of previous denture experiences and in the second part, pati ents graded their partial dentures, depending on the level of satisfaction, by using a scale from 1 to 5. In the third part a dentist determined Kenne dy classification and their modifications, denture material and denture sup port, denture base shape and the number of missing teeth and graded a dentu re construction. Influence of these factors on patient's satisfaction was a nalyzed. A majority of the examined patients were satisfied with the partia l prosthesis, but a small amount of dissatisfaction existed. More then half of them scored all the examined parameters to the best score category. Con sidering chewing with lower partial dentures, women were more satisfied tha n men (p <0.05). Patients with more missing teeth gave lower grades for the comfort of wearing dentures (p<0.05). Patients of higher education gave lo wer grades (p<0.05) for the aesthetics. Patients were not satisfied with sp eech if the dentist graded a construction of a lowerpartial denture low (p< 0.05). Dissatisfaction was related to mastication, aesthetics, number of mi ssing teeth and ability of speech. These findings can aid a clinician in di scussing a treatment plan and help a patient understand the risk of dissati sfaction in the presence of certain factors.