Retention force of zirconia bar retained implant overdenture: Clinical comparative study between PEEK and plastic clips

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate and compare retention force of twoimplants retained mandibular overdenture with zirconia bar using twodifferent clip materials.Methodology: 20 completely edentulous patients (8 women and 12men) with age ranged between 45 and 65 years were selected for thisstudy. All patients received conventional maxillary and mandibularcomplete dentures. Two implants were inserted bilaterally in themandibular canine region. CAD-CAM fabricated zirconia bar attachmentwas used to retain mandibular overdentures. Patients were randomlydivided into two equal groups where poly-oxy-methylene (POM) clip wasused for Group I and poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) clip for Group II.Retention force was measured at time of overdenture insertion (T0), sixmonths (T6), and twelve months (T12) later.Results: Significant difference was recorded between the two groups ininitial retention forces (T0) where PEEK clip group recorded higherretention forces in comparison to POM clip group (P=0.029). However,insignificant difference was observed at (T6) and (T12). Within groupcomparison of mean retention values at different follow-up periodsrevealed significant difference for both groups.Conclusions: Within parameters of this study, it could be concludedthat both POM and PEEK retentive clips can provide acceptable andcomparable retention forces when used with zirconia bar during 12months period of overdenture use.