In case of maxillectomy, maxillofacial prosthodontists fabricate surgical obturators before surgery. Prosthetic rehabilitation can be performed after the surgery, but in the case of mandibulectomy, it is sometimes difficult to start the restoration of functional disorders early after the surgery because it takes a lot of time to fabricate an interim prosthesis.
A 74-year-old female underwent a marginal mandibular resection due to squamous cell carcinoma. One month after the surgical resection, the patient was referred to the Maxillofacial Prosthetic Clinic of Tokyo Medical and Dental University. From the oral surgeons’ information, the patient’s mandible had become edentulous due to the surgical resection. We asked whether the patient had an old removable partial denture or not. Because there was the old denture, the removable partial denture was modified using tissue conditioner to fabricate an interim prosthesis. It took about 1 hour to modify, and restoration of functional disorders could be started promptly. Six months after the surgery, a duplicate prosthesis was fabricated to transfer the shape of the interim prosthesis to the definitive dento-maxillary prosthesis. The final impression was taken with the duplicate prosthesis and the definitive dento-maxillary prosthesis was fabricated and adjusted only a few times. In this case, the postoperative prosthodontic rehabilitation could be started early because the old denture was modified as an interim prosthesis.
