Original scientific paper
Linear Vertical Jaw Resorption Potential in Elderly Complete Denture Wearers: A Five-Year Follow-Up Study
Dubravka Knezović Zlatarić
Asja Čelebić
Ivan Kovačić
Branimira Mikelić Vitasović
Abstract
Human bones decrease in quality and increase in porosity beginning at about the third decade of life. The aim of this
study was to establish an equation to predict the maxillary and mandibular linear vertical resorption potential for elderly
edentulous patients on the basis of the analysis of the cervical vertebrae in a single cephalometric radiograph. The
morphology of the bodies of the third and fourth cervical vertebrae and measurements of linear vertical resorption in the
frontal region of the jaws were analyzed in two consecutive cephalometric observations of 26 elderly edentulous patients
over the five-year period of wearing complete dentures. An equation was determined to obtain maxillary and mandibular
linear vertical resorption on the basis of measurements in the third and fourth cervical vertebral bodies and the average
errors between the predicted and the actual values were 0.14 mm. The cervical vertebrae exhibited significant decrease in
the height and width, and residual alveolar ridges exhibited significant decrease in the height over the 5-year period of
wearing dentures (p<0.01). These results suggest that using cervical vertebral measurements might allow predicting the
maxillary and mandibular resorption for edentulous elderly patients wearing complete dentures.
Keywords
residual ridge resorption; complete denture; cervical vertebrae; cephalometric radiograph; osteoporosis
Hrčak ID:
27064
URI
Publication date:
2.9.2008.
Visits: 1.330 *