A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RETENTION OF MANDIBULAR DENTURE BASES IN PATIENTS WITH RESORBED RIDGES WITH OR WITHOUT SUBLINGUAL EXTENSION - AN IN VIVO STUDY.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of sublingual extension on the retention on mandibular denture bases, and compare the retention of the denture bases with or without sublingual extension. Material and Methods: Twenty healthy subjects with edentulous mandibular ridge with moderate to severe resorption and good oral hygiene were selected as a part of this study. Border molding was done with conventional technique and with sublingual extension. Two acrylic resin denture bases were fabricated for each subject. A specially designed retention apparatus consisting compact force gauge was used to measure retention values of these denture bases. Results: The dislodging forces for the two denture bases (A and B) of each subject were recorded (in grams) and the collected data was subjected to statistical analysis with IBM SPSS 24 windows software. There was significant increase in retention values (p<0.05) of denture bases after sublingual extension. Conclusion:Within the limitations of this study it was concluded that retention could be significantly increased after sublingual extension of the denture bases. Further, long term functional analysis is needed to determine if the subjects could tolerate the amount of dimensional changes created by extension in sublingual region.