RELIABILITY OF THREE COMMON METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE VERTICAL DIMENSION OF OCCLUSION IN COMPLETELY EDENTULOUS PATIENTS

Introduction. Determination of the correct vertical dimension of occlusion (OVD) for an edentulous patient is generally viewed as one of the most important steps in making a complete denture. This study was conducted to identify the reliability of the vertical dimension of occlusion determination methods used more commonly in current clinical practice in prosthetic treatments of completely edentulous patients. Materials and methods. A prospective study was performed in the Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Three examiners with the same professional certification performed OVD measurements by three different methods for each patient (9 measurements / patient), namely the methods applied for measuring the vertical dimension of the rest (RVD), of the height of lower face in phonetics (VS), and the anthropometric method (AM), for establishing the OVD. Results and discussion. The RVD method provided results between 5 and 7.6 cm, with an average of 6.16 +/- 0.65 cm. The VS method provided results between 5 and 7.5 cm, with an average of 6.18 +/- 0.67 cm. The anthropometric method provided results between 5 and 7.4 cm, with an average of 6.17 +/- 0.64 cm. Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the statistical results of the three OVD measurement methods applied in the study evidenced a small variability interval, in parallels with the absence of detectable changes in the facial appearance of the patient.