Evaluating the chewing efficiency of complete dentures using bilateral balanced occlusion and lingualized occlusion: A comparative study

Abstract

Background -Dentistry plays one of the major role in the battlefield of medical sciences. It covers the major part of the human body which deals with the complex orofacial structures and associated complex stomatognathic system. The complex stomatognathic system has to be maintained in every pathological or abnormal condition like partial to complete edentulism. The maintainance of the stomatognathic system is significantly dependent on the branch of dentistry that deals with the part or complete replacement of lost or missing functional and complex structures known as prosthodontics. The occlusion serves the basic function of the complete denture prosthesis as one of the central goal of complete denture therapy is restoring occlusion.  The occlusal scheme is still the topic of debate (that which occlusal scheme is best suited for the complete denture prosthesis), as no occlusal scheme has proved best in all cases.  It is revealed that the choice of occlusal scheme used in complete denture prosthesis is primarily to the practitioners personal preference and experiences  that varies from patient to patient.

Aim -The purpose of this study was to evaluate the chewing efficiency of two different occlusal schemes i.e. conventional bilateral balanced occlusion and bilateral balanced lingualized occlusion in complete denture patients.

Method- 20 edentulous patients aged between 40 - 70 years with a mean age value of  55 years attending among the out-patient department of  Patna  Dental College and Hospital Patna, were selected for the present study. A thorough screening of general and systemic health is carried out and found free of all major systemic diseases. After the selection of the patients it was decided that all the 20 patients were provided complete denture with conventional bilateral balanced occlusion and after 45 days of post insertion of the newly fabricated complete dentures, the patients were recalled and asked for the subjective qualities of the complete denture.

Result -Confirming better chewing ability by BBLO than CBBO.

Conclusion- The result of the present study concludes that the complete dentures with BBLO performed significantly better chewing ability than CBBO Since in the present study, all the test were carried out with same set of complete dentures by modifying CBBO to BBLO upon the same patient, which had not been taken into account by any of the previous studies. All the previous studies had used two different set of complete dentures with two different patients. Thus, this is a remarkable milestone in the present study providing a definite authenticity of the study.