# Comparison of perceived masticatory ability in completely edentulous patients treated with thermoplastic complete denture versus single implant-retained mandibular overdenture: a single-center prospective observational study

## TL;DR

This study compares how well completely toothless patients chew with regular dentures versus dentures supported by a single implant, finding that implants significantly improve chewing ability.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that single implant-retained mandibular overdentures significantly enhance perceived masticatory ability in edentulous patients.

## Key findings

- Thermoplastic conventional dentures showed no significant improvement in chewing ability after six months.
- Single implant-retained overdentures significantly improved chewing ability at one and six months.
- The improvement in chewing ability with overdentures was maintained over six months.

## Abstract

This study aimed to compare the perceived masticatory ability (PrMA) in completely edentulous patients (EDPs) with thermoplastic conventional complete dentures (CDs) versus single implant-retained mandibular overdentures.

The current study was conducted in the outpatient Prosthodontic Clinic, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. PrMA was evaluated in 45 completely edentulous patients (46% males, mean age 50.4 ± 4.7 years). Each patient received a thermoplastic PMMA complete denture (Polyan IC TM Bredent GmbH & Co.KG, Germany). The PrMA was evaluated at one-month and six-month intervals of denture use. An immediate loading single implant was placed into the mid-symphyseal for each patient, and the denture was adjusted. Subsequently, the PrMA was reevaluated after one month and six months. The data were collected and statistically analyzed using the SPSS@V25 to assess the changes in PrMA.

The PrMA demonstrated improvement after six months of thermoplastic conventional denture use. However, this improvement was not statistically significant (p = 0.405). In addition, the PrMA showed a substantial increase following a single implant placement at one and six months (p < 0.001) of the overdenture use compared to the conventional denture. The PrMA insignificantly improved (p = 0.397) after six months of the single implant retained overdenture use.

The study’s findings indicate that using immediate loading single implant-retained mandibular overdentures significantly improved PrMA in completely edentulous patients.