A Survey of the Principles of Partial Denture Construction by Dental Laboratories in Shiraz

Background: As conventional prosthesises are still the most common prosthetic treatment for public, this study has been conducted to assess the communication between the dentist and dental laboratories and find the supervision of the dentists on lab works. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive, cross- sectional study, by referring to ten dental laboratories, seven basic steps of the construction of PDRs have been considered and all the necessary information was recorded in a questionnaire. Results: In %83 of the cases, RPDs were constructed on the study diagnostic casts and for %100 of the cases no border molding had been done. %83.7 of the retentive clasps were not actually retentive, but again in %83.7 of them there was some form of reciprocal component. In %96.7 of the cases, the clasp arms were fabricated on unprepared tooth surfaces. All major connectors were rigid and in %42.9 of the cases they had enough distances to gingival margins. In most cases, indirect retainers were absent or were made in wrong places. Only in 10 out of 35 distal extension cases, RPD design was considered and for the rest, no special design was observed. In only %5, guiding planes were made on prepared tooth surfaces and finally it appeared that the majority of RPDs were designed by dental technicians rather than by dentists. Conclusion: The results indicate that dentists frequently use techniques that require a minimum of appointment time. Therefore, a greater emphasis is required to be put on continuation of education for dentist, along with better and more detailed communication between the dentists and dental laboratories. Key words: Removable partial dentures, Dental laboratories, Design.