Mandibular Implant Overdentures: The Standard of Care

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Mandibular Implant Overdentures: The Standard of Care
March 1, 2004
Shawn Heggie
Compton Implants
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The edentulous patient presents a treatment challenge to each dental practitioner that has often been resolved inadequately. The ultimate goal is to restore the patient to a level of satisfactory function. This is a serious task considering the fact that if we extrapolate American figures to the Canadian population, it can be estimated that four million patients in Canada are fully edentulous (1). This number does not look like it will be changing that much in the near future either. Even though tooth loss in industrialized countries has been decreasing, there is still an increased amount of tooth loss with age. This means we will see a slight rise in the number of edentulous patients as the mean age of the population increases by way of the ǃ?baby boomerǃ? generation (2).
Traditionally, edentulous patients have been treated with conventional dentures, and it is not uncommon for these patients to complain that the lower denture is poor while the upper one is good. From a complete denture wearers perspective, maxillary dentures often present them with minimal or no problems, but it remains difficult for them to eat because their mandibular denture lacks retention and stability. Conventional dentures rely on the residual alveolar ridge and the oral mucosa for support and retention, and this is not an easy thing to adapt to, especially in the mandible. The widespread use of denture adhesives and modifications to a softer, unhealthy diet both verify the problems that can arise as patients are exposed to the adaptation process (2). When one considers that these patients have been functioning with natural teeth for the majority of their life, it is easy to comprehend their predicament. The chief reason that conventional mandibular dentures pose such a problem is because bone resorption is significantly greater in the mandible than in the maxilla of edentulous people (1, 3). Since conventional dentures rely on the residual alveolar ridge for support and retention, it is the mandibular dentures that suffer the most from this natural process.
References:
1. Somborac M. Simplifying mandibular implant overdenture treatment. Oral Health 2001; 91 (8): 17-20.
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