Keynote Address: Long-Term Clinical Performance of Fixed FDPs Depends on Alloy Selection

The provision of a fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) to replace lost hard and soft tissues is a common treatment procedure. Partial and full FDPs are retained by either teeth or implants and a plethora of combinations of substructure and veneering materials is available. How these material combinations perform in the long term is an essential consideration for the dentist and the patient. The speaker has been involved in conducting prospective clinical studies of FDPs over 25 and 10 years and a recent retrospective study where implant-retained FDPs made from Cr-Co-alloy compares favourably with Au-alloys over 20 years. Findings and observations from these studies and recent systematic reviews on the subject will be presented and discussed. Remarkably little clinical data are available for determining the relationship between FDP biomaterials combinations and their long term clinical performance.