Retrospective Digital Study of Mandibular Flexure in Patients With Long-span Fixed Restorations Supported by Natural Teeth.

Nine patients (five males and four females) were included in this study who had long-term (10-15 years) of long-span rigid mandibular fixed prostheses that may have led to radiographic changes around the supporting teeth. The treatment plans included the removal of the long-span fixed rigid prostheses followed by restoring the patients with segmented implant-supported prostheses. In order to digitally measure the mandibular flexure, reference markers were adhered to the prostheses, and intraoral scans were obtained before and after splitting the preexisting prostheses at the minimum and maximum mouth opening. The distances between the markers were measured, and mandibular flexure was calculated by subtracting the distance between the markers during the maximum mouth opening from the minimum mouth opening. An independent sample T-test was used to compare mandibular flexure before and after splitting the long-span fixed prostheses.