An evaluation of crowns and bridges in a general dental practice.

In this article the results are presented of an evaluation of crowns and bridges in a general practice. The study includes 601 solitary crowns, 213 crowns on bridge abutments and 103 crowns on RPD abutments. In total eighty-four bridges were examined. All these restorations were constructed during a period of 11.5 years. By means of the Kaplan-Meier method a prognosis is given of the life span of the different solitary crown-types over periods between 1 and 11 years. The total amount of failures and follow-up treatments on bridge and RPD abutments was very small. The authors also examined whether the bridges were constructed according Ante's law. A follow-up of this study in other Dutch general practices in combination with experimental clinical trials is under way.