The traditional therapeutic paradigm: complete denture therapy

Abstract

The art and science of complete dentures for oral restoration has been espoused and debated for over a century. A tradition of clinical mentoring has passed this prosthodontic trust through time to create an educational cycle where the pupil ultimately became the tutor for yet another pupil. Today's clinical techniques and judgments are an amalgamation of these original prosthodontic philosophies. This article will bring forward some procedures for the fabrication of complete dentures for the scrutiny of their scientific bases. Scrutiny does not imply that aspects of therapy not proved in studies of rigorous scientific design are untruths. However, it is incumbent that those aspects of denture therapy regarded as "public domain" by the corpus of the profession be analyzed. It is also incumbent that possible costly or harmful aspects of denture therapy be identified. There is a paucity of "procedural research" in clinical investigations; research that involves performing an invasive or clinician-intensive procedure. This article also discusses the difficulties in performing procedural research as a means of understanding its importance, but also realizing the reasons that this type of research is not prevalent in the dental and health professional literature. The most common types of investigations used to evaluate patient acceptance and function of dentures will also be discussed.