Rapid denture fabrication for institutionalized patients

Abstract

Purpose: Edentulism is a common condition among the elderly population. However, it is difficult for elderly subjects who are institutionalized, hospitalized, or bedridden to visit dental offices for the repair or replacement of broken dentures. This paper describes a fast technique with minimum clinical sessions to fabricate a new maxillary denture. Case description: An institutionalized 78-year-old man with an extremely damage broken maxillary denture complained about repairing his denture. With the impossibility of repairing, the technique described was proposed so as to offer a treatment that would maximize the comfort of the patient. The maxilla-mandibular relationship was done at the first clinical session, after fabricating the maxillary resin baseplate in mouth, by fixing the old complete mandibular denture with the maxillary wax plane. At the second clinical session, the esthetics and function of artificial teeth was checked and final impression was made to the denture installation at next session. Conclusion: The reduced number of clinical sessions is a convenient option for clinicians to provide a more comfortable treatment for institutionalized or bedridden patients. This technique is also particularly useful when a replacement denture is urgently required, allowing its installation within few hours. Copyright: © 2011 Senna et al.