Control of jaw closing forces: a comparison between implant-stabilised overdenture wearers and complete denture wearers.

This study compared the precision of control of jaw closing forces in two groups of edentulous subjects: ten patients wearing implant-stabilised mandibular overdentures and ten complete denture wearers who were satisfied with their prostheses. A force transducer was used to assess the ability of the subjects to follow pre-determined jaw closing cycles. The error in tracking the target increased as the force increased for both the implant and denture group. In this experiment, the overdenture wearers were less able to control jaw closing forces than successful wearers of conventional complete dentures.