Statement of problem: Patient perspectives on the treatment options for maxillary edentulism, which debate include fixed or removable implant-supported prostheses, may help eliminate current uncertainty as to the best choice of treatment plan.
Purpose: This study intended to evaluate the impact of implant number placed in fully edentulous maxilla on the clinical as well as the radiographic outcomes of implant-supported maxillary overdentures with locator attachments over two years of investigation.
Materials & methods: For this clinical research study held between May 2015 and May 2017, twenty-four fully edentulous patients received new maxillary and mandibular complete dentures prior to implant placement. After common denture delivery modifications, every patient was instructed to use the denture in a conservative manner for three months, with a follow-up appointment every two week. During this period, arrangements for implant placement were processed. Following the three months of adaptation; patients were randomly categorized into two main groups: In the first group (of twelve patients), every patient received six implants in the maxilla (three in each quadrant) utilizing a pre-fabricated computer-aided surgical stent. In the second group (of twelve patients), every patient received four implants in the maxilla (two in each quadrant) utilizing a pre-fabricated computer-aided surgical stent. After six months of implants placement (to ensure complete implants osseointegration), patients of the two groups had completed the procedures of fabricating Implant-supported maxillary overdenture with locator attachment. the clinical & the radiographic outcomes of the Implants supporting the overdentures had been calibrated at time of implants insertion, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 24 months respectively. Noting that: Forcemeter measurements started at the time of overdenture insertion Not at the time of implants insertion (i.e. only four readings were obtained). Results: Repeated measures ANOVA test was used to study the changes by time inside each group as well as to compare between the two groups. Moreover, Student's t-test was used to compare between quantities of bone loss or improvement in the two groups. Those studies exhibited that; there was a statistically significant difference in clinical & radiographic outcomes between the two groups of study throughout the investigation period.
Conclusion: Maxillary Overdentures supported by six implants exhibited a more reliable and better treatment option than those supported by only four implants, in terms of clinical as well as radiographic outcomes.
Keywords: Overdenture, Edentulism, Clinical outcome, Implant Number, Maxillary Denture, Locators.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
Completely edentulous patients often have problems with their complete dentures; a treatment modality of using four to six implants to support a maxillary overdenture has been proposed to improve the retention as well as the stability of the maxillary denture, in addition to preserving the residual alveolar bone.