A CLINICAL STUDY ON THE SATISFACTION OF COMPLETE DENTURE PATIENTS

총의치 환자의 만족도에 대한 연구

A success of complete denture prosthesis can be determined by the satisfaction degree of the dentist and the patient. There are many factors influencing on the satisfaction of the complete denture patients. The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between the masticatory satisfaction and clinical evaluation, and the speech satisfaction and clinical evaluation in complete denture patients. 79 patients(total 119 complete dentures) were examined in this study who were treated in Seoul National University Dental Hospital. Through clinical evaluation, 2 examiners evaluated sex, age, edentulous period, the years of having used present complete denture, the number of the previous dentures, the state of the opposite arch, retention, stability, support, occlusion, vertical dimension of the complete denture and the condition of the residual alveolar ridge. Through questionnaires concerned with mastication and speech, examiners evaluate the satisfaction degree of the patients. This study led to the conclusion that : 1. The satisfaction degree of the mastication was lower in older patients(p<0.001) and in patients whose present complete denture period was shorter(p<0.05). The satisfaction degree of the mastication in male was higher than in female patients(p<0.01). 2. The satisfaction degree of the mastication was high when the retention of the complete denture was good(p<0.05), and when the condition of the residual alveolar ridge was good(p<0.05). 3. The satisfacion degree of the speech was high when the retention of the complete denture was good(p<0.01). 4. The satisfaction degree of the mastication was higher in patients with upper and lower complete denture than in patients with single complete denture whose oppsite arch was unilateral partial denture(p<0.05).