A temporary denture base prosthesis helps prevent remaining mandibular teeth from causing injury to the edentulous maxillary ridge while the patient awaits a laboratory-fabricated denture.

To solve this problem, I propose the use of a maxillary denture baseplate to prevent injury to maxillary soft tissue in a patient with an edentulous maxilla who has retained some mandibular anterior teeth (Figure 2). The temporary denture base prosthesis also improves the patient’s speech and swallowing functions by providing support in the anterior maxillary area and by improving closure of the mouth.

View larger version (71K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 2. A temporary denture base prosthesis can prevent trauma to maxillary soft tissue.

– Take a maxillary impression in a stock tray using alginate. Pour the impression using slurry water to generate the cast quickly, or pour it in quicksetting plaster.

– Fabricate a trial denture base using pink denture base material on the cast, closely adapting the material to the vestibular area with a wet cotton swab. Separate the denture base tray from the cast.

– Carefully finish and polish the denture base maxillary tray to remove rough spots from the tissue surface and borders. Inspect the borders to ensure that they are neither under- nor overextended.

– Deliver the denture tray to the patient, using a routine denture insertion method. Use pressure-indicating paste to check for high spots and adjust them as necessary.

– Adjust the occlusion using standard techniques.

The postoperative care for this prosthesis is similar to that for a complete denture. Consequently, upon insertion, the patient should be given standard postoperative instructions:

– The denture base should be cleaned regularly, at least once a day, with a toothbrush and soap and water.

– The denture base should be left out of the mouth for five to eight hours per day to give the maxillary soft tissue a chance to heal and to prevent complications such as Candida infection

– The patient must return for a 24-hour postoperative visit so that the dentist can check for sore spots in the maxilla or vestibular ulceration due to border overextension. (The dentist then can adjust the base-plate during this visit using standard techniques.)

CONCLUSION
The temporary denture base prosthesis described here helps prevent remaining mandibular teeth from causing soft-tissue injury to the edentulous maxillary ridge while the patient awaits a laboratory-fabricated denture. Inexpensive and easy to make, it may be completed in less than 45 minutes while the patient waits. More important, the prosthesis may shorten post-extraction healing time by preventing undue injury to the maxillary edentulous ridge. The prosthesis also serves as a trial or training denture to aid the dentist in evaluating the patient’s tolerance and expectations. It improves the patient’s speech and swallowing. Finally, the prosthesis helps improve the patient’s motivation to wear the final denture.

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