Oral Health Impact Profile and Self-Perception of Patients in Brazil with Implant-Supported Prostheses

Introduction: Implant supported prosthetic rehabilitation could re-establish the comfort and bring a confident smile to patients, allowing them to eat properly and to lead a social life free of traumas and complexes. Aim: The objective of this research was to verify which type of implant-supported rehabilitation-overdenture or fixed denture effectively restores the comfort of the lower arch of partial edentulous patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional clinical study was performed in patients with completely edentulous lower arch treated with either overdenture (2 implants) or fixed denture (5-6 implants), obtained from a sample from Southern Brazil. The study sample was composed of 37 volunteers who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Half of them were rehabilitated with overdenture (o'ring and bar) and the other half with fixed denture (Branemark protocol). A clinical evaluation was performed to obtain the Index of Plaque (PI) and bleeding on probing indexes (BI). Three questionnaires were applied to quantify the patient's level of satisfaction with their prosthetic treatment (OHIP-EDENT and masticatory ability questionnaires) up to one year after installation of the prosthesis. Results were analysed by the Mann-Whitney test (alpha=0.05). Results: All treatments were considered satisfactory regarding masticatory ability. However, fixed dentures had a statistically higher level of satisfaction compared to overdenture. There were significant differences in the mean PI and BI index between the groups. Conclusion: Both rehabilitation treatments increased the satisfaction and improved the oral health and masticatory ability of edentulous patients. However, although patients rehabilitated with fixed dentures presented higher level of satisfaction, they also showed higher plaque and bleeding on probing indexes.