Seleção de dentes em prótese total: uma nova abordagem

Abstract

Edentulism, due to its high prevalence and the resulting aesthetic, psychological and social damage it entails, has been considered one of the most serious problems in oral health today. Therefore, rehabilitative treatments are necessary, such as the installation of removable dentures, although in this type of rehabilitation aesthetic dissatisfaction is a common failure. Over the years several methods have been described in the dental literature to optimize tooth selection and achieve more esthetic results. For Young (1954), beauty, harmony, naturalness and individuality are important qualities of aesthetics and must be present in the manufacturing of satisfactory prostheses. Knowing that the selection and assembly of teeth performed properly and with patient involvement directly affects patient satisfaction and considering the difficulties in selecting adequate models of artificial teeth for each patient, especially by professionals with less general experience, the goal of this study was to developed an interactive and complementary method to Clapp's Technique of Labial Dynamics (1914) to optimize the selection of artificial teeth in total rehabilitations, based on the creation of adhesive replicas of the artificial teeth present in the molds supplied by the manufacturers. The adhesive replicas were created from photography, editing, printing and cutting in adhesive vinyl of three models of Tritone® artificial teeth and accurately reproduced the dimensions informed in the manufacturer's mould chart. In the future, the clinical feasibility of using adhesive replicas of artificial teeth will be evaluated by professionals and patients.