Original scientific paper

Patients’ Satisfaction with Partial Denture Therapy

Dubravka Knezović-Zlatarić
Asja Čelebić
Melita Valentić-Peruzović
Vjekoslav Jerolimov
Robert Ćelić
Irina Filipović-Zore
Iva Alajbeg

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' satisfaction with their partial dentures in relation to some socio-economic variables. The aim was also to evaluate patients' satisfaction with denture retention, speech, aesthetics, chewing ability and comfort while wearing dentures. The influence of some factors, such as age, sex, marital status, level of education, smoking, chronic diseases, socio-economic status, ordinal number and age of thepresent dentures, on patients' satisfaction with partial dentures was also evaluated. A total of 165 patients with partial dentures took part in the study. There were 59 males and 106 females aged between 38 and 87 years. Patients graded their satisfaction with their partial dentures in total and then graded aesthetics, speech and retention, chewing ability and comfort while wearing dentures by using a scale from 1 to 5. Following a statistical analysis the following conclusions were made: 1. Patients were mostly satisfied with their partial dentures (the distribution of the scores of the patients' assessments was asymmetrical towards the highest scores in all examined categories). Only 3.2% of the patients were not absolutely satisfied with their partial dentures, 2. More then half of the examined patients scored all the examined variables in the best score category (5), 3. Patients of a higher level of education had higher criteria for the aesthetic appearance, as they assessed their partial denture aesthetics with a lower grades than patients with lower level of education. Males were less satisfied with the chewing ability of lower partial dentures (p<0.05) than females, 4. There was no significant difference in patients' assessments of the quality of their partial dentures between different age groups, ability of self-supporting life, socio-economic and economic status, marital status, smoking, presence of chronic diseases, number of previous dentures and age of present dentures (p>0.05).

Keywords

patients' satisfaction; partial dentures; socio-economic factors

Hrčak ID:

11459

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/11459

Publication date:

15.12.2000.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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