Digital denture scanning and 3D printing for residents in care homes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Digital denture scanning and 3D printing for residents in care homes – an innovative solution for managing denture loss/breakage
IRAS ID
296809
Contact name
Daniel Gillway
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 14 days
Research summary
For any individual, losing or breaking a denture can have a detrimental effect on their overall well-being, impacting on nutrition, communication, and dignity and it is not always possible to remake them. Dentures take on average five dental appointments over eight weeks to remake. Often people in care homes may be frail or have a cognitive condition such as dementia and are unable to cooperate with the invasive denture making process. Making dentures via digital scanning and 3D printing is well established in the private dental sector and provides a non-invasive, person-centred solution to replacing dentures for people living in care homes.
This is a feasibility study with the aim to preliminary demonstrate that digitally scanning dentures for residents living in care homes could potentially address this issue. This established intervention used in the private sector will be applied to the target population to allow duplicate dentures to be remade within days rather than months without the need for clinical impressions. This project could be scaled up nationally which could lead to changes in practice with the hope of improving residents quality of life and reduce the cost to the responsible health or social care system.
The research team are clinicians who provide treatment for care home residents on referral from dental services and are established domiciliary dental care providers. Local care homes have been identified and the researchers will provide oral health assessments, and identify and consent care home residents who wear dentures. The aim is to scan a minimum of 10 dentures at the care home. Residents will be provided with the printed replicate dentures which will then be assessed for function and appearance. Brief semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a number of residents, family/friend, care home staff to evaluate their experience and acceptability of the replicate dentures.
Lay summary of study results: Eight residents successfully had dentures scanned and replicated to a satisfactory standard. It took, on average, 10 minutes to scan a denture and 20 minutes to print the denture. All replica dentures were satisfactory to the resident. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews showed that study participants were satisfied with denture replacements and the process. The three main themes that emerged were: the significance of dentures to the individual, satisfaction with the scanning process and general low self-esteem and fatigue.
Link to Lay Summary:
https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fu2790089.ct.sendgrid.net%2Fls%2Fclick%3Fupn%3DXv3JSvJ-2B3M71ppf7N9agbZKm4C0TeSkP8lYcMVEmwG65NwQW-2BECD4mIKfRgu2dXn_isk_E1aO2-2BZlVOSJJV-2FajQqskegTd6IRomHYTi-2Fbt8SH3YJgYnrjDNCCZ4nPDhRF3wcQgMmIwaZvcbcd0FEuVEuvFs8PZGXpqkS7Knevy0AgGPQddGwEB6p-2FLLkvKPT-2Fn777QGZiDizRrgJDG1voG1uWA1mfVQQCgf-2BBNFHI0u-2BZQQuyfdJz43jhtNbJTRzM0MpNi5dl1CAC7E3bR3VCxBXCjGpqqs0TFpfusFKnxyBKT-2Bc-3D&data=05%7C02%7CTracy.Hamrang%40hra.nhs.uk%7C76bd9e7bab6a4c5202bc08dc892627d7%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C638536044199098200%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=75yGMqZqJHyaNZViy%2BFwb2SoU4U4sh%2BxJudDzvpWQPA%3D&reserved=0REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/LO/0601
Date of REC Opinion
15 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion