33 Mandibular Dentures in Head and Neck Cancer Patients 2 Results Of the total number of patients (n = 51), 32 had an IOD and 19 a CD (Fig 1). The patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. In the 32 patients with an IOD, a total of 73 implants were placed in the mandible. Overall implant survival was 97.3% (71/73), and 95.9% (70/73) of the implants were in function after a mean time of 48.6 months (range: 14 to 132 months, SD: 32.1 months). Two implants were lost, one at stage-two surgery and the other due to malpositioning. In one patient, one of three implants was not activated, as it was not needed for the prosthetic rehabilitation. Most of the patients (n = 45, 88.3%) used their mandibular dentures (Table 3). Reasons for being unable to wear the mandibular denture were: anatomical changes in the oral cavity due to ablative surgery, pain, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and dissatisfaction with design and esthetic aspects of the denture. Table 3 - Frequencies of Patients Wearing Their Dentures Frequency % Yes 39 76.5 Most of the time 6 11.8 Mostly not 4 7.8 Never 2 3.9 Total 51 100 Patients answering “yes” or “most of the time” were scored as “wearing their denture”. Patients answering “mostly not” or “never” were scored as “not wearing their denture”. Table 4 - Denture Satisfaction Scores for the Total Group n Minimum Maximum Mean Overall Denture Satisfaction 49 1 10 7.3 Mandibular Denture Satisfaction 48 1 10 7.4 Range: 0 to 10 with 0 being completely dissatisfied and 10 being completely satisfied. The missing patients were not able to wear their dentures because of changes in anatomy due to recent surgery.
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