Efficacy of removable partial denture treatment : a retrospective oral health-related quality of life evaluation

Successful removable partial dentures (RPDs) use may be influenced by patient and denture variables including age, denture experience and number or position of teeth being replaced. Influence of patient and denture variables on OHRQoL with RPDs was investigated using ordinal logistic regression analysis.

Methods: Participants provided with RPDs were invited to complete OHIP-20 at least 4 weeks after dentures were fitted. Clinical records were retrieved to identify a number of independent variables. Variables meeting a standard of statistical significance were included into regression analysis to quantify influence on OHIP-20 scores.

Results: 84 patients agreed to participate. No. of missing teeth, age, gender, replacement of anterior teeth and framework material were entered into the model, which was statistically significant, p⟨0.001, with pseudo R² of 0.39. Significant variables were age (p⟨0.05), no. of missing teeth (p⟨0.01), gender (p⟨0.05) and replacement of anterior teeth (p⟨0.001). Replacing anterior teeth showed 9.68 point reduction in OHIP-20 score in patients with replaced anterior teeth.

Discussion: Replacing anterior teeth was associated better post-operative OHRQoL outcomes, suggesting RPDs address impacts on OHRQoL of missing anterior teeth. Success of RPDs in overcoming impacts of tooth loss on OHRQoL was worse as more teeth were lost.