Purpose: The objective was to evaluate metal base adaptation and clinical retention of upper complete dentures with a CO-CR metal palate constructed by two different approaches (casting a 3d printed wax resin pattern, Selective laser melting (SLM) 3D printing technology).
Material and methods: A total of seven completely edentulous patients were included in this study, for each patient two complete dentures were fabricated. According to the approach used for the fabrication of metal palatal plate (MPP) of the maxillary denture, they divided into two groups (GI: MPP constructed by casting a 3d printed wax resin pattern ,GII: MPP constructed by direct 3d printing. (Selective laser melting (SLM)). To evaluate the adaptation of each MPP, Surface matching software was used to superimpose the scan files for each MPP on those for the corresponding processing cast. Retention force was measured one week and one month following denture insertion using a digital force gauge. The measurements were taken and subjected to statistical analysis.
Results: better adaption was found for MPP constructed via casting 3d printed resin pattern than those by direct printing approach. However, the difference between the two groups was statistically non-significant, with clinically accepted retention following denture insertion.
Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it was found that complete maxillary dentures with MPP constructed by casting a 3d printed resin pattern introduced better adaptation than those constructed via direct 3d printing (Selective laser melting technology. However, the difference between both groups was statistically non-significant. Both approaches revealed clinically accepted retention.