This article evaluates the retention force of Locator metal housing attached to implant overdenture with two different pickup strategies.
Two dummy implants were inserted in the lower canine positions. The denture base was designed digitally with particular parameters for both study groups (n = 5 each) with two different pickup strategies: without retaining material for the intervention group and with retaining material for the control group. Retention forces were tested by using the universal testing machine at 0, 135, 270, 405 and after 540 insertion/separation cycles respectively.
The data was analyzed to evaluate the effect of time on retention in each study group using the One-Way ANOVA test, which revealed an insignificant difference between different intervals. To compare the two study groups with each other Independent t-test was used which revealed insignificant differences between them in all intervals. Frequency and percentages analysis of detached and non-detached metal housings in both groups was performed by using Chi-square test which also revealed insignificant differences between both groups.
Within the limitations of this study, the retention in both groups was nearly equivalent. Yet, by time, retention decreased in both study groups. This pickup technique may be a new application of digital dentistry reducing chair-side corrections.