BACKGROUNDS. Treatment of total edentulism with implant-supported overdenture is an established alternative to the conventional removable denture, especially in the case of poor anatomical conditions in the mandible. The aim of our study was to estimate the difference in satisfaction based on the quality of life aspect in totally edentulous Slovenian patients trea­ted with mandibular implant-supported overdentures or conventional removable dentures by using a standardized questionnaire.

METHODS. The study enrolled 50 patients treated with mandibular implant-supported overdentures and 63 patients treated with conventio­nal removable dentures. This number also includes 8 patients with very poor anatomical con­ditions who were followed-up prospectively and asked to rate their satisfaction with the prostheses prior to and after treatment with implant-supported overdentures. The patients were asked to complete a custom questionnaire about their general health and prosthetic treat­ment and the standardized »Oral Health Impact Profile« questionnaire, which assesses physi­cal dysfunction as well as the social and psychological influence of various dysfunctions and diseases of the stomatognathic system and their influence on general health.

RESULTS. Patients treated with implant-supported overdenture are generally more satisfied than those treated with conventional removable dentures (p<0.01), which is even more obvious in the pros­pectively assessed group of patients. Questions for assessing functional limitations of the sto- matognathic system and prosthetic appliances and physical pain in the stomatognathic system yielded statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the two groups in > 50% of ans­wers. In other groups of questions assessing psychosocial and general handicap, a statisti­cally significant difference (p < 0.05) was found in less than 50% of answers in a particular group of questions.

CONCLUSIONS. Patients with implant-supported overdentures are more satisfied than those with conventional, removable dentures. The differences between the two groups are most prominent in the groups of questions which serve to assess the functional limitations of prosthetic appliances and pain in the stomatognathic system.