Maintaining occlusal stability by selecting the most appropriate occlusal scheme in complete removable prosthesis

The search of an adequate occlusal scheme that maximizes dentures’ stability and patients’ satisfaction is an ultimate objective in every complete prosthodontic treatment. Many studies compared occlusal schemes in terms of retention, comfort and masticatory performance. The purpose of this article is to review literature about different occlusal schemes related to complete dentures’ stability and edentulous patients’ satisfaction, in order to select the most appropriate occlusal scheme. Thus, an electronic search was performed from PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, Cochrane, Google Scholar and Sciencedirect databases. 65 articles were identified of which 56 were selected to compose the present article. Within the limitations of this review, it has been concluded that edentulous patients prefer anatomic occlusal schemes to non-anatomic teeth. Furthermore, canine guidance seems to be efficace in terms of chewing comfort and dentures’ retention, as well as lingualized occlusion. However, bilateral balanced occlusion does not confer a long-term masticatory performance and satisfaction to edentulous patients.