Prosthodontic Rehabilitation in a Maxillectomy Patient with an Implant- supported Overdenture: A Clinical Report

A 65-year-old male patient with a status of right maxillectomy with preoperative chemoradiotherapy is presented, in whom the defect was reconstructed with rectus abdominis flap. Following loss of abutment teeth due to poor periodontal condition, the previous maxillary overdenture retained O-ring attachments (OP anchor attachment) unfortunately failed. Dental adhesive was unable to provide satisfactory denture stability and adequate prosthesis retention. Therefore, the patient was offered treatment of dental implant with Locator attachment-retained overdenture in the remaining maxilla. Masticatory efficiency by using subjective and objective measurements was evaluated with the previous overdenture, with the implant-supported overdenture, and with two years follow-up. Although an implant was suddenly left after 1 year functioning, the patient wore implant-supported overdenture with Locator attachments masticatory functions still showed markedly improvement. There was no complication during the second year followup period. The results suggest that the application of implant-supported overdenture with Locator attachments is useful for oral rehabilitation in patients with resected edentulous maxilla.