2019 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 242-252
In recent years, as one of the measures for increasing the effectiveness of denture treatment, there has been great interest in using overdentures based on implants (implant overdentures ; IOD) for edentulous patients. There is a consensus on the recommended treatment for mandibular IOD, but there is less evidence for maxillary IOD treatment guidelines than for the mandible, especially from the viewpoint of denture treatment. In this article, we report cases of maxillary IOD using two implants with good functional recovery even 5 or more years after surgery from the viewpoint of denture treatment. Fifteen patients who underwent maxillary IOD treatment with two implants between April 2008 and April 2013 were studied. Evaluation was performed on 1) sex and age, 2) implantation site and number of implants, 3) type and size of implants, 4) type of attachment, 5) usage of old dentures for IOD, 6) shape of IOD, type of artificial teeth used and occlusal conditions, 7) denture fitness to mucosal surface and 8) patient's satisfaction. As a result, all 15 cases were done by “top-down treatment”. Old dentures were not used and complete dentures were newly made, although not all were roofless. Factors that contributed to obtaining good function while using only two implants were control of vertical movement by the implant and attachment, and good fit of the dentures, especially the dispersion of force to the palatal surface and the posterior denture sealing, thus reducing the force applied to the implant. It was suggested that in the treatment of IOD for maxillary edentulous patients, the prognosis is affected by the quality of the complete denture.
