Common Problems Encountered During the Delivery of New Dentures Constructed by Dental Clinical Students at University Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM)

Background Dentures are one of the main treatments dentists deliver to restore the oral function and aesthetics of individuals with missing teeth. Clinical denture fabrication and manufacturing is one of the main training modules for undergraduates during dental clinical training. However, students often face problems during denture delivery due to multiple factors causing discomfort to patients, affecting the quality of the denture and the patient's adaptation period to the denture. This study aims to study the relationship between common problems during the delivery of dentures constructed by third and fourth-year dental clinical students at University Sains Islam Malaysia as well as the causes and factors leading to faulty dentures. Methodology Clinical and denture examinations were done alongside two sets of validated questionnaires distributed to students and patients. Descriptive data were presented and analyzed using the chi-square test in SPSS Version 29 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) with p-values <0.05 considered statistically significant to identify the relationship between common problems and their causes and factors. Results The most common problem during denture delivery was pain (47%) which was associated with mechanical factors (85%). Pain mostly occurred among cobalt chrome denture patients (60%). The longer the history of wearing dentures the more it contributed to patient psychological factors (p = 0.004). Although the type of denture was not associated with denture problems during delivery (p = 0.562), alveolar ridge resorption was likely associated with denture problems (p < 0.001). Conclusions This study demonstrated that the common problem encountered during denture delivery was related to faulty dentures instead of patient psychological problems.