Despite the patient-reported advantages of implants in improving quality of life, satisfaction, and mastication, objective evaluations of the masticatory function and performance of implant-supported dentures are not well represented in the literature. The aim of the present study was to compare the masticatory efficiency of patients with conventional dentures with that of patients with mandibular overdentures retained by implants with 2 Locator attachments. A randomized clinical trial including 20 edentulous patients was conducted. The participants were randomly recruited into 2 groups, a group of 10 patients wearing conventional prostheses in both the maxilla and mandible, and a group of 10 patients wearing a conventional maxillary prosthesis opposite an implant-supported overdenture. To be included in the study, the patients had to have a well-formed ridge (Class I according to the Atwood classification). Their masticatory efficiency, assessed a minimum of 6 months after they received the denture, was evaluated through a color-mixing test using 2 colors of a commercially available chewing gum and ViewGum software, which calculated the variance of hue in the masticated specimens. The masticatory efficiency of the 2 groups was compared using repeated-measures analysis of variance (α = 0.05), which revealed no statistically significant difference between the implant-supported overdenture and conventional denture groups (P > 0.05). Within the limits of this study, the results suggest that a mandibular implant overdenture has no advantage over a conventional complete denture with regard to masticatory efficiency or food comminution in patients who have a well-formed mandibular ridge.
Keywords: complete denture; implant-supported overdenture; masticatory efficiency.