抄録
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the insertion of unilateral extension base removable partial dentures (RPDs) on the elution of umami components during mastication in Kennedy Class II cases.
Methods: Rishiri kelp cut into 25 mm×25 mm pieces was selected as the test food. Eight patients with unilateral molar teeth defects were instructed to masticate samples for 50 strokes each, on the edentate side with RPDs, on the edentate side without RPDs, and on the dentate side. The amount of glutamic acid extracted from the samples was determined by spectrometry; the difference between the amounts of glutamic acid in the original and chewed samples was regarded as the amount intraorally eluted. The ratios of the amounts of glutamic acid eluted intraorally to that present in the original samples were compared among the groups.
Results: Bonferroni-adjusted Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank tests revealed a significant difference between the ratios of the amount of glutamic acid eluted intraorally from samples chewed on the edentate side with RPDs and that from samples chewed on the edentate side without RPDs and between the ratios of the amount of glutamic acid eluted intraorally from samples chewed on the dentate side and that from samples chewed on the edentate side without RPDs (P<0.017). There was no significant difference between the ratios of the amount of glutamic acid eluted intraorally from samples chewed on the edentate side with RPDs and that from samples chewed on the dentate side (P=0.48).
Conclusion: Our results suggested that the insertion of unilateral extension base RPDs were useful for the elution of umami components during mastication.
