Assessment of the fit of removable partial denture fabricated by computer-aided designing/computer aided manufacturing technology

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of evidence that supports the quality of fit for removable partial denture (RPD) fabricated by computer-aided designing/computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and rapid prototyping (RP) technology. METHODS: An electronic search was performed in Google Scholar, PubMed, and Cochrane library search engines, using Boolean operators. All articles published in English and published in the period from 1950 until April 2017 were eligible to be included in this review. The total number of articles contained the search terms in any part of the article (including titles, abstracts, or article texts) were screened, which resulted in 214 articles. After exclusion of irrelevant and duplicated articles, 12 papers were included in this systematic review. RESULTS: All the included studies were case reports, except one study, which was a case series that recruited 10 study participants. The visual and tactile examination in the cast or clinically in the patient’s mouth was the most-used method for assessment of the fit of RPDs. From all included studies, only one has assessed the internal fit between RPDs and oral tissues using silicone registration material. The vast majority of included studies found that the fit of RPDs ranged from satisfactory to excellent fit. CONCLUSION: Despite the lack of clinical trials that provide strong evidence, the available evidence supported the claim of good fit of RPDs fabricated by new technologies using CAD/CAM.