Elderly Patients’ Perception of Previewing the Prosthetic Treatment Outcome

The demographic statistics indicate that, with the industrial development and the advances in the medical field, the average life of the population has started to increase significantly; consequently, the needs of treatments in geriatric dentistry are becoming more and more significant. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patients� perception of diverse techniques used to obtain previews for final fixed prosthetic restorations: digital smile design (DSD), wax-up, indirect mock-up, temporary restorations, Computer-Aided Design (CAD). A focus group that included 11 participants, all of them geriatric patients, was formed; patients were invited to respond to a set of seven questions before and after various previsualization methods were applied. The focus-group report indicated that the indirect mock-up and the temporary restorations were considered by the geriatric patients as the best methods for obtaining good prosthetic previews. Comparing to the other tested methods, the use of indirect mock-up increased the acceptance of the prosthetic treatment plan and offered the most influential visual impact for 72.7% of participants. In addition, all tested previews allowed excellent