ABSTRACT
Oral rehabilitation intends to restore masticatory, aesthetic and phonetic functions. In recent years, flexible dentures have been used as alternatives for conventional removable dentures in cobalt-chromium and acrylic resin. This work aims at evaluating the masticatory efficiency in patients treated with removable partial denture (RPD), studying the influence of both the use and the type of RPD (conventional or flexible). Using silicone-based tablets, thirty participants underwent masticatory efficiency tests (18 flexible; 12 conventional), before and after oral rehabilitation. Using a sieve series, the mean geometric diameter (MGD) of samples was calculated with Granucalc1.0 software. After oral rehabilitation a statistically significant decrease in the mean MGD values was found only in the RPD conventional group. The inter-group comparison of the average MGD after oral rehabilitation also showed statistically significant differences. The type of denture appears to influence the masticatory efficiency, with flexible dentures having the lowest performance under our experimental conditions.
