Patients' esthetic expectations and satisfaction with complete dentures.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Understanding the factors affecting patients' satisfaction with their dentures is essential to achieving higher satisfaction rates.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this clinical study was to test for possible relationships between the esthetic satisfaction of complete denture therapy and factors including age, sex, and esthetic expectations.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were integrated from 4 previous studies of complete denture satisfaction, and a secondary data analysis was performed. All studies, which had similar methodologies, recorded patients' esthetic expectation and satisfaction scores using a 0 to 10 visual analog scale. The Sign test was used to test the difference between satisfaction and expectations. The Fisher exact, Spearman rank correlation, Wilcoxon rank sum, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, as well as the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test using ridit scores, were used to assess the relationships regarding the heterogeneity among studies, satisfaction, and factors of interest.

RESULTS: Of the 283 participants studied, 52% were female, and the median age was 58 years. The satisfaction scores exceeded expectation scores significantly (P<.001), although they were both high. Age, sex, and expectations were different among studies (P<.008); age also differed between sexes (P=.004). After adjusting for the study, men had higher expectations than women (P=.005); there was no sex difference in level of satisfaction. Only in men was satisfaction positively correlated with expectations (r=0.300; P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, patients were more esthetically satisfied than they expected after completing denture therapy; esthetic satisfaction did not differ between sexes or with age. The expectation of men was higher than that of women and was positively correlated with their level of satisfaction.