The era of digital complete Dentures: A Literature Review

Introduction: Removable complete dentures have entered the digital era in the past decade, revolutionizing the field of prosthodontics. Digital workflows are constantly evolving with the maturity of digital technologies. Aim: The aim of the current review is to summarize the current knowledge and current advancements in the field of digital complete dentures. The article reviews techniques for recording edentulous ridges, steps and different methods of recording maxillo-mandibular relationships. It gives a description of the digital designing of the prostheses and touches upon various available manufacturing technologies. It can be inferred that the main advantages of digital complete dentures over conventional are the reduced clinical time and the number of visits, digital archiving, higher retention, superior mechanical and physical properties in CAD/CAM dentures, leading to favorable clinical and patient-centered outcomes. Milled dentures have been studied longer compared to 3D printed ones in the currently available literature. The restricted number of clinical studies limit current indications of 3D printing to fabrication of custom trays, record bases, trial/interim/immediate dentures but not definitive prostheses. Conclusion: The digital workflow is applicable and versatile to all fields of dentistry. Though digital technology has shown to have clear advantages, careful planning has to be considered prior to its implementation. Digital dentures are a promising option to simplify complete denture fabrication.