Evaluation of factors affecting the continuing use and patient satisfaction with removable partial dentures over 5 years

The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate factors that affected the continuing use of RPDs and the patients’ satisfaction 5 years after delivery. Sixty-seven patients treated with 90 RPDs delivered at the Tohoku University Hospital (Sendai, Japan) between 1996 and 2001 participated in this study. The patients were re-examined 5 years after delivery. Data were collected from clinical records and a questionnaire was used to evaluate the patients’ delivery use of the RPDs. The RPD treatment was divided into three categories labeled as ‘successful’, ‘remake’, and ‘failure’. Twelve factors that might affect the continuing use and 15 factors regarding satisfaction were evaluated. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to assess statistical significance. Fifty-five RPDs were regarded as successful, 21 were remake, and 14 failure. Statistically significant associations were found between the continuing use and the patient's age ( P = 0.002), location of the edentulous area ( P = 0.047), number of occluding pairs of teeth ( P = 0.038), number of occlusal rests ( P = 0.038), pain while using RPDs ( P = 0.006), color of the artificial teeth ( P = 0.021), and tooth shape and set-up ( P = 0.022). These findings suggest that the continuing use of RPDs is related to factors such as the patient's age, location of edentulous area, number of occluding pairs of teeth, and number of occlusal rests, satisfaction including pain while using RPDs, color of the artificial teeth, and tooth shape and set-up.