Teaching an abbreviated impression technique for complete dentures in an undergraduate dental curriculum

Statement of problem. Traditional methods for teaching complete denture fab rication are time-consuming, difficult to master, and not used by many gene ral practitioners. Purpose. This study compared the efficacy of traditional denture fabricatio n techniques with a more abbreviated method in a dental school setting. Material and methods. A retrospective record review of 80 completely edentu lous patients treated by predoctoral dental students was completed. Forty p atients were treated with traditional denture techniques; the other 40 pati ents were treated with an abbreviated method. The data abstracted included the number of visits to completion and the number of postinsertion visits a nd relines required within the first 3 months after delivery. A Wilcoxon ra nk sum test was performed to determine statistical significance between the groups with regard to number of visits for fabrication and postinsertion a djustments. A test for a difference in proportions by using the normal appr oximation to the binomial distribution was performed for statistical analys is of the incidence of relines. Results. The abbreviated denture technique resulted in a statistically sign ificant difference in the number of visits for fabrication (P<.01) and post insertion adjustments (P<.05.) There was no difference (P=.39) in the numbe r of relines between the 2 groups. Conclusion. Teaching the abbreviated complete denture technique in an under graduate dental clinic decreased the number of appointments necessary to co mplete denture therapy without increasing the number of adjustments or reli ne procedures.