Eficácia mastigatória em pacientes portadores de prótese parcial removível e prótese parcial fixa

: antes e depois

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays there are multiple solutions to rehabilitate the masticatory function. Goals: The objective of this project was to compare the masticatory efficiency in patients with different dental characteristics: a control group, with natural complete dentition, three representative groups of partially edentulous patients, belonging to Kennedy’s I, II and III classes, and a group that had already been submitted to oral rehabilitation by fixed prosthesis. Methods: These were subjected to a masticatory test using a natural gum for unilateral mastication to the right, left, and free. The granulometry of the particles was registered and used to infer the quality of the masticatory function in each patient. The comparisons were made using only 2 groups at a time, with the students test. Results: Results show that for Kennedy’s class I partially edentulous patients there are a significant difference between the granulometry obtained with or without prosthesis. With the exception of Kennedy’s class II, in the unilateral test to the right, none of the other comparisons presented significant differences. Besides, the comparison between each of the edentulous patients groups against the control group reports significant differences. Discussion: The comparison between the control group and the fixed prothesis groups shows significant differences in the unilateral mastication test, but not in the free mastication one, which may be due to the fact that the patients tend to masticate in the most confortable way they can, making them resemble the patients with natural complete dentition. The rehabilitation with removable prosthesis will be less effective than with fixed prosthesis. Clinical relevance: This type of works encourages the improvement of the oral rehabilitation procedures. However, by its academic context, small sample size and low number of considered variables, it might lead to conclusions that do not entirely represent the reality

Date of Award	5 Sept 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	André Baptista (Supervisor) & Rui Amaral Mendes (Co-Supervisor)