Teaching an abbreviated impression technique for complete dentures in an undergraduate dental curriculum

Statement of problem. Traditional methods for teaching complete denture fabrication are time-consuming, difficult to master, and not used by many general practitioners. Purpose. This study compared the efficacy of traditional denture fabrication techniques with a more abbreviated method in a dental school setting. Material and methods. A retrospective record review of 80 completely edentulous patients treated by predoctoral dental students was completed. Forty patients were treated with traditional denture techniques; the other 40 patients were treated with an abbreviated method. The data abstracted included the number of visits to completion and the number of postinsertion visits and relines required within the first 3 months after delivery. A Wilcoxon rank sum test was performed to determine statistical significance between the groups with regard to number of visits for fabrication and postinsertion adjustments. A test for a difference in proportions by using the normal approximation to the binomial distribution was performed for statistical analysis of the incidence of relines. Results. The abbreviated denture technique resulted in a statistically significant difference in the number of visits for fabrication (P<.01) and postinsertion adjustments (P<.05.) There was no difference (P=.39) in the number of relines between the 2 groups. Conclusion. Teaching the abbreviated complete denture technique in an undergraduate dental clinic decreased the number of appointments necessary to complete denture therapy without increasing the number of adjustments or reline procedures.