POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS IN COMPLETE REMOVABLE DENTURE PROSTHETICS

Relevance. The fabrication of complete dentures for edentulous jaws is a cornerstone of prosthetic dentistry, and retention is a critical factor for clinical success. Traditional methods, including border molding and the creation of a sealing valve, have proven effective, but digital intraoral scanning offers a faster and more convenient alternative for patients. Accurate representation of the prosthetic foundation and the tissues forming the sealing valve is a major challenge in the fabrication of complete removable dentures for edentulous patients, especially those with highly mobile soft tissues. Objective of the study. Analysis of the accuracy of scanning the prosthetic foundation in patients during the fabrication of complete removable dentures based on data from previously conducted studies. Materials and methods of the study. A literature search was conducted using the PubMed electronic database to find studies that investigated the effectiveness of using denture bed scanning in the manufacture of complete removable dentures. The search terms used were (“digital impression” OR “scanning”) AND “complete denture”. The search period covered the period from January 2014 to December 2024. Literature reviews, abstracts, articles describing the use of techniques were excluded. Conclusions. In the course of the retrospective analysis, a sample of 7 scientific articles was formed. The results of the analyzed studies vary somewhat, but in general show that digital methods of manufacturing complete dentures are still inferior to traditional approaches, especially in the creation of a closure valve. The number of scientific papers comparing traditional approaches to the manufacture of complete dentures and new digital techniques is not sufficient to definitively solve the problem of the effectiveness of digital impression making.