Acceptance of full dentures.

The wearing of even technically perfect full dentures is associated with a significant deterioration of most, if not all, oral functions. The fact that between 85 and 90 per cent of patients receiving new and technically well made dentures and between 65 and 75 per cent of patients with older dentures are generally satisfied with the treatment result is therefore more of a tribute to human adaptation than to prosthodontic skill. Research has shown that variables claimed to play an important role in patient acceptance of full dentures, such as the quality of the dentures, the oral condition, the patient-dentist relationship, the patients' attitude toward dentures, the patients' personality, socio-economic factors, demographic variables, previous denture experience and oral stereognosis, have in fact no or negligible effects in this respect. Nor has the degree of prediction been appreciably improved by combining the effects of such variables. Variables of theoretical importance for acceptance of dentures such as the patients' motory ability and the quality and quantity of saliva have still to be studied. At the present time research has yet failed to furnish the clinician with a practical method whereby patients who are unlikely to accept full dentures can be identified with any degree of certainty. The clinician has therefore still no option but to base his prediction on an individual estimate of his patient's adaptive ability.