Two-year Success, Clinical Performance and Patient Satisfaction of Fiber-reinforced-composite Fixed-partial-dentures

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the success, clinical performance, and patient satisfaction of direct placed fiber reinforced composite (FRC) fixed partial dentures (FPDs) in a two-year follow up period.
Methods: 120 subjects who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. 167 FRC-FPDs were directly fabricated to restore single missing tooth by six Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents. The FRC FPDs were randomized into groups dependent on missing tooth location, retention type (surface, inlay, and hybrid) and fiber materials (pre-impregnated glass fiber (StickTech) and polyethylene fiber (Ribbond)). The prostheses clinical performances were evaluated at the baseline (2-weeks), 6, 12, and 24-month by two calibrated evaluators for prosthesis adaptation, color match, marginal discoloration, surface roughness, caries, and post-operative sensitivity using modified USPHS criteria. Patients were requested to evaluate the prosthesis appearance, color, chewing ability and overall satisfaction using visual analogue scale (VAS). Kaplan-Meier success curve was plotted using IBM-SPSS.
Results: During 2-year follow up, 94 patients with 137 FRC-FPDs returned which resulted in an attrition rate of 21.67% for study subjects and 17.94% for FRC-FPDs. 17 FRC-FPDs failed due to one-end (4), two-ends (4) debonding or pontic fracture (9). For an accumulative 2-year success rate of 84.32%, there is no statistical difference between groups of different missing tooth location, retention type or fiber materials (P>0.05). The FRC-FPDs demonstrated satisfied prosthesis adaptation, color match, marginal discoloration and surface roughness at 24-month. The patient satisfaction was rated high on the VAS scale (Mean>80) for all criteria at baseline, 6, 12, and 24-month.
Conclusions: In this study, the FRC-FPDs (restoring single tooth) fabricated by AEGD residents achieved 84.32% success rate in a 2-year follow up period. The FRC-FPDs success was not affected by missing tooth location, retention type or fiber materials. Long-term follow up is desirable in future study.