Introduction: Clinical evaluation of oral-facial muscle dysfunctions requires the practitioner to conduct a thorough clinical examination, which enables the latter to detect any tone, volume or contraction changes in the various muscle groups, which may impede upon the later prosthetic treatment.
The aim of this study is to detect the changes that occur in fully edentulous patients, by means of a thorough clinical examination, designed to help dentists develop a correct and complete treatment plan.
Material and method: The study group included 110 men and 90 women aged between 50 and 88 years, with an age average of 68.9 years, whom were divided into two subgroups depending on the moment when their edentulous condition occurred, that is recently (less than 5 years) or a long time before (more than 5 years). The patients examination consisted of Netter tests performed for each muscle group.
Results: The study revealed that the manducatory muscular system of all the patients suffering from older edentulousness was in a worse condition than that of the patients with more recent edentulousness, which has serious repercussions on the activity of the whole stomatognathic system.
Conclusions: Stomatognathic system dyshomeostasis, which occurs as a complication of total edentulousness, is virtually a decompensated stage of the evolution of this complex condition, as the irreversible changes that its triggers also affect the muscular component. The impaired muscular group may thus influence the basic mandibular-cranial relations and the mandible dynamics patterns in patients with older edentulousness, and even their post-prosthetic adjustment to fully removable conventional therapy.
- masticatory muscles
- stomatognathic system
- total edentulousness.