Effect of Using Two Different Techniques of Denture Base Fabrication on Retention of Maxillary Complete Denture: An in Vivo Comparative Study

Abstract

Introduction: Complete denture is used to replace the entire dentition and restoremastication, speech, and aesthetics. All other tooth-supported solutions have beenexhausted. Because Computer-Aided Design/ Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) dentures are milled from pre-polymerized Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA)blocks that do not display polymerization shrinkage, they can eliminate the laboratoryprocesses of acrylic processing (setting up of teeth, try-in, flasking and de flasking).Aim: to compare the retention values of maxillary conventional heat-polymerizeddenture bases with digitally milled denture bases. Materials and Methods: Sixteentotally edentulous patients participated in the study, which was divided into two groups(n=8) (A) and (B). Patients in the group (A) received traditional heat-cured acrylic resindentures with a long cycle water path curing procedure, in group (B) received denturescreated using the CAD/CAM technique. For both groups, a metallic hook affixed to thegeometric center of the maxillary dentures was pulled by a digital force-meter gauge tomeasure retention. Results: The mean retention values were recorded for both groups,tabulated, and statistically analyzed; the following results were obtained. Regardinggroup (A), retention values showed a significant increase at the beginning of thestudy as well as at the end of the study. Regarding group (B), retention values showeda significant initial increase at the beginning of the study, till the end of the study.A significant difference was revealed between the mean retention values of the twotested groups, with clear superiority of the retention of the CAD/CAM acrylic resindentures (group B) than that of the conventional heat-cured acrylic resin dentures(group A). Conclusion: CAD/CAM acrylic resin dentures were superior in terms ofmaxillary denture retention compared to conventional heat-cured acrylic resin dentures.Retention was increased gradually over time in both two studied groups.