Comparisons of patient satisfaction levels with complete dentures of different occlusions: a randomized clinical trial.

PURPOSE There is a lack of evidence to recommend a particular type of posterior occlusal form for conventional complete dentures. The type of posterior occlusal scheme can affect complete denture stability, retention, and patient satisfaction. The objective of this study was to compare patient satisfaction to three types of complete denture occlusion using a randomized, crossover controlled trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three sets of complete dentures were made for each of 15 patients (mean age = 58.87 ± 15.02 years). They received (1) fully bilateral balanced occlusion (BBO), (2) lingualized occlusion, and (3) buccalized occlusion (BO) denture sets in random order. After wearing each set for 6 weeks, patient satisfaction was assessed using a 19-item version of the Oral Health Impact Profile for Edentulous Patients (OHIP-EDENT). Each question was scored on a 1 to 5 scale for patients' problems with dentures (for these ordinal variables, 1 = "never" and 5 = "very often"). These items were first analyzed by Friedman tests and then by Wilcoxon rank tests for 80% test power at the 0.05-alpha level (d = 0.7). RESULTS BO resulted in lower avoidance of particular foods and physical disability scores than fully BBO. CONCLUSIONS With the caution of small sample size, the results of this study provide evidence that use of BO can improve food avoidance and physical disability aspects of patient satisfaction with complete dentures.