• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.77-84
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• 2011

The benefits of implant supported overdenture are readily apparent for the fully edentulous patients and have been well documented, however, there is deficiency of the studies regarding the combination of implants with removable partial dentures for partially edentulous patients. The purpose of this article is to review the literature concerning implants with removable partial dentures and evaluate the evidence for this clinical approach. Through many clinical case reports and studies we have searched from a broad variety of journals, we present the six considerations needed to contemplate respecting implants with removable partial denture in partially edentulous patients. First, the connection between abutment tooth and removable partial denture has to be rigid and the link between implant and removable partial denture should be hinged. Second, a mesial rest acts better in the point of force distribution for distal extension removable partial denture and splinting between implants is also a favorable choice. Third, T bar has an advantage for implants which are used as abutments in distal extension removable partial denture. Forth, as we all known functional impression is better way to reproduce movement for distal extension removable partial denture. Fifth, indirect retainer and guiding plane on the proximal surfaces of terminal abutment teeth are important in preventing denture base lifting. Sixth, implants in conjunction with removable partial denture is superior in the esthetic and phonetic as well as cost-effective point of view. We also suggest that which place we should install implants for force distribution and which diameter and length of implants should be used. in this review article, we recommend to locate the implant near of the abutment tooth for esthetics or near of first molar position for good stress distribution. The diameter and length of implant also influence to stress distribution. When we compare to conservative partial denture, patients go for removable partial denture using implants due to convenience, better support and retention according to several studies. But it is true that we need to study more on this subject and collect long term follow up cases before we discuss on it. So it is enough to bring this subject into the surface of prosthetic treatment by this article.