Evaluation of Satisfaction Level in Patients With Mandibular Implant Supported Overdentures

Implant-supported overdentures could have many benefits for patients, especially in the lower jaws. As a matter of fact, the most common reason for prescribing mandibular overdenture is dissatisfaction of patients with mandibular dentures usually because of a lack of retention, stability and function and speech difficulties. On the other hand, patients' expectations of overdenture treatments are their main disadvantage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction of patients who had received mandibular implant supported overdenture treatment with different number of implants. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Twenty-five patients with a mean age of 62.7 years who had received mandibular implant supported overdenture treatment at the dental school of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences were enrolled. Among these patients, six had overdentures supported by one implant, nine had overdentures supported by two implants, two had overdentures supported by three implants, five had overdentures supported by four implants and three had overdentures supported by five implants. The visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaire was used to evaluate the general satisfaction, comfort, esthetic, fitness, satisfaction of chewing and social communication, and the data was analyzed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. All patients in all five groups were satisfied with their overdentures; however there was no significant relationship between the number of implants and fitness (P = 0.446), esthetic (P = 0.843), comfort (P = 0.805), satisfaction of chewing (P = 0.133), social communication (P = 0.322) and general satisfaction (P = 0.493). There was no difference in satisfaction level of patients who had received mandibular overdentures with different number of implants.