Alveolar Bone Loss on Abutment and Non-Abutment Teeth as Related to Removable Partial Denture Wearing. A Six Month Follow up Study

Loss of interdental alveolar bony septum can be determined directly from a radiograph as a percentage length of the interdental bony crest of the alveolus to the distance from cemento-enamel junction of the tooth to the tooth apex. The aim of this study was to measure the height of interdental alveolar bone around the abutment and nonabutment teeth in removable partial denture wearers (RPD) on dental panoramic radiographs (DPR) through a period of six months. Twenty RPD patients (5 males, 15 females participated in the study. The alveolarbone loss measurement was performed on DPRs, using Shei index, on each mandibular abutment and non-abutment tooth on its mesial and distal side, after the RPD delivery and six months later. Recordings of plaque index (PlI) were made at the mid-buccal, mid-palatal, mesio- and disto-palatal surfaces of each abutment and non-abutment teeth after the RPD delivery and six months later. The results revealed a decrease of Shei index values on both abutment and non-abutment teeth, which reached a statistically significant level for distal Shei index values of the abutment teeth and mesial and distal Shei index values of the non-abutment teeth (p0.05). We concluded that the decrease in bone support on both abutment and non-abutment teeth was attributed to the high levels of PlI and low level of oral hygiene than to RPD loading. Supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of Croatia, Project No. 065911.