A Preliminary Investigation into the Dietary and Oral Practices Associated with Fractured Teeth and Prostheses in a Trinidadian Population

Objectives: This preliminary study seeks to determine the relationship between fractured teeth, restorations, prostheses, and specific dietary practices. Methodology: Anonymous questionnaires were randomly distributed to a convenience sample of Trinidadian adults at various locations around the country, after gaining consent. Data were analyzed using the software; Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for significant associations between various types of food and broken teeth or prosthesis using odds ratios. Results: Three hundred questionnaires were completed. Seventy­five percent of the patients preferred crunchy or hard foods and 51% of the respondents liked crushing bones, mostly chicken bones. It was observed that respondents with a dietary preference for fried whole chana, split chana, crab, and sugarcane were significantly associated with broken dentures. Respondents eating whole chana also had a significant association with broken teeth and broken dentures. Associations were found between some dietary preferences, ethnicities, and age groups. Conclusions: Significant associations between age, ethnicity, sex, and certain dietary practices and habits were found. There also appears to be a significant relationship between patients with fractured teeth, restorations, and prostheses with certain dietary preferences.

Copying Is Not Cheating: The Use of Copy Dentures In The Digital Denture Process

Dental practitioners often encounter patients who want to replace an old pair of complete dentures. There are many factors and inherent challenges involved in providing a new pair of dentures which are not only technically and clinically acceptable, but also acceptable to the patient. These challenges can prove to be particularly difficult, when the replacement denture is for an elderly patient, or patients with systemic disorders such as Parkinson's, Dementia, Alzheimer's or the physically frail. Previous denture use enables a patient to adapt more quickly to a new set of dentures, as compared with a patient who has never worn dentures before. However, when patients are wearing old and inadequate prosthesis over long periods, the necessary muscular control develops, which enables them to still function. Therefore, the difficulty arises if major changes are made in the new denture, and a lot of muscular adaptation is required for control. In these cases, the advantage of a copy dentures would be the ease with which neuromuscular adaption to the new dentures can occur. (Vohra and Habib 2013) The method described in this poster used materials readily available in a private practice to generate a pair of duplicate dentures which captured all of the features of the patients existing pair. These were modified chair-side and used to capture vital information on fit, occlusion and aesthetics, forming a template which was transferred to the laboratory and used to generate new dentures via the traditional laboratory process. The same template was also used to generate a pair of "AVADENT Digital Dentures" for comparison.

Oral health and denture quality: a pilot study in Trinidad

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of dentures worn by a sample of the population in Trinidad and respondents' attitude towards their oral health and dentures. DESIGN AND METHODS: Respondents to advertisements in all the local newspapers for persons wearing full dentures were interviewed and examined clinically. Dentures were examined for processing defects. Mandibular functional movements were measured and dentures were evaluated for reproduction of these movements. RESULTS: In the 54 subjects studied none of the dentures were made to function with mandibular jaw movements. For the maxilla and mandibular dentures, 96.8 percent of the axial inclination of the teeth were set incorrectly. All of the denture extensions were found to be short and none had any retention or stability. None of the participants had post delivery visits. The majority (77.5 percent) of all the dentures had never been repaired and 61.3 percent had fractured teeth. A majority (51.6 percent) of participants were found to be in need of palliative treatment and 48.4 percent needed urgent treatment. The primary concerns of the participants were that they were slack (35.5 percent). The majority of dentures sampled (80.6 percent) were made by a dental technician who also did the clinical procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The dentures made in Trinidad fall below acceptable standards and majority were made without any relation to functional jaw movements. However, patients' compliance with their prostheses was high (75 percent). There is an urgent need to a concerted effort by health officials to standardize oral health care.(AU)