KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF OCCLUSION SCHEMES IN COMPLETE DENTURE AMONG SECOND YEAR STUDENTS - A SURVEY

Abstract

„Occlude‟ means to „close‟ and occlusion is defined as the static relationship between the incising or masticatory surface of the maxillary or mandibular teeth or tooth analogues. It is necessary to plan out the occlusal scheme prior to selection and arrangement of artificial teeth.Out of the many concepts which were proposed, balanced occlusion, canine guided occlusion, lingualized occlusion and monoplane occlusion are used most commonly. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, awareness and practise of occlusal schemes in complete dentures among second year students. A questionnaire was prepared with general questions based on the occlusal schemes of complete dentures and was distributed among atotal of 100 practising in their second year. The data  which was collected were computerised and analysed statistically using the SPSS software. The results showed that 89.8 students were aware that the occlusal scheme required for complete denture is balanced occlusion, 59.3% agreed upon use of lingualized teeth to establish balanced occlusion and 71.2% of students were aware about the denture instability cause as underextension. By result analysis, it was observed that the awareness regarding occlusal schemes could improve more among second year students.