Patients who seek but not receive implant-stabilized dentures will probably remain unsatisfied when new conventional dentures are made

Subjects. A total of 75 edentulous patients seeking complete denture replacement were included in the investigation. One group of 20 patients sought and received an implant-stabilized denture (17 women, 3 men; mean age, 56 years). Another group of 20 subjects sought an implant-stabilized denture (11 women, 9 men; mean age, 60 years) but instead received conventional complete dentures. Last, a group of 20 patients sought and received complete denture replacement (26 women, 9 men; mean age, 65 years). Exposure. Implant-stabilized dentures were compared with conventional dentures. Main Outcome Measure. Denture Satisfaction Scale and Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) were assessed. Main Results. At baseline the treatment groups differed in dissatisfaction with the current prosthesis (P < .05); those requesting implant-stabilized dentures were more dissatisfied with their current prosthesis. After delivery of new prostheses, the implant-stabilized denture group and patients who sought conventional dentures had significant improvement in denture satisfaction. The subjects who sought but did not receive an implant-stabilized denture had some- nonsignificant-improvement in satisfaction. Change in median denture dissatisfaction (lower number means higher satisfaction) was from 55 to 31 for the implant-stabilized denture group, from 47 to 42 for the conventional denture group that desired implants, and from 48 to 30 for the conventional denture group. Subjects who wanted implant-stabilized dentures were dissatisfied with conventional dentures and had high expectations for better satisfaction with implant-stabilized dentures. Similarly, OHIP scores improved from after delivery of prostheses-significantly for the implant-stabilized and conventional denture groups.