Complete Denture Fractures and Habits of Denture Wearers

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of denture fractures in complete denture wearers as well as assessing the nocturnal wearing habits and hygiene practice in these subjects.

Methods: The sample comprised 224 edentulous subjects whose were treated in Araçatuba and Araraquara Dental School–University of State of São Paulo, Brazil, from 2000 to 2005. Data were assessed by an interview, and were analyzed by EpiInfo software–version 3.3.2. The analysis of denture fractures was done by Chi-square and Fisher exact tests (alpha = .05).

Results: 70% of the subjects were female aged 61 to 80 years. More than 25% of the sample stopped wearing their prostheses altogether due to mucosa trauma (56.9%), lack of retention (37.9%) and denture fracture (22.4%). The prevalence of maxilary denture fracture (44.8%) was higher than that of mandibular denture (34.5%) but not statistically significant (X²= 224.0, P<.05). More than half of the fractures (55.2%) were related to the detachment artificial teeth from the prosthetic base. The main causes of fractures were falls (56.2%) for mandibular denture and excessive chewing load (68.4%) for maxillary denture (Fisher exact test= .34, P<.05). In addition, most patients (55.8%) did not remove their prostheses during their nightly sleep. Among those who did remove it, 66.4% removed both maxillary and mandibular dentures, 26.4% removed only the mandibular and most of them presented poor hygiene (63.4%).

Conclusions: It was concluded that the prevalence of fractures and non-denture wearing were both high. Furthermore, the subjects need motivation and guidance to discourage denture wear during their nightly sleep and improve hygiene practices.

This work was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (grant numbers: 05/04408-8 and 06/00617-4).