Success and complication rates of non-precious alloy telescopic crowns in a general dental practice.

OBJECTIVES This retrospective, single-center, practice-based cohort study aimed to analyze factors associated with the success of removable partial dentures retained by telescopic crowns (TRPD). MATERIALS AND METHODS TRPD which were placed in a single practice of a practice-based research network were analyzed. Data from 139 patients (age (SD): 66 (11) years; 66 female) with 174 TRPD including 488 non-precious alloy telescopic crowns (TC) between 2004 and 2016 were included. TC without any technical complication were considered as successful, and as survived, if they were still in function at the last check-up. Multilevel Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between clinical factors and time until failure. RESULTS Within a mean follow-up period (SD) of 4.2 (3.3) years (min-max: 1 day-12 years), 372 (76%) TC (AFR5years,TC-level: 5.0%) as well as 136 (87%) TRPD (AFR5years,TRPD-level: 5.1%) ("worst-case scenario") and 150 (86%) TRPD (AFR5years,TRPD-level: 3.4%) ("best-case scenario") were considered as successful. The main failure types were recementation (n = 39), endodontic treatment (n = 36), and extraction (n = 35). TC in male patients showed 1.6 times higher risk for failure than in female patients (95%CI: 1.1-2.4; p = 0.023). TC on premolars showed 2.2 times higher risk for failure than on incisors (95%CI: 1.1-5.0; p = 0.023) and TC in dentures with ≤ 3TC showed 2.1 times higher risk for failure than TC in dentures with > 3TC (1.3-3.4; p = 0.042). Furthermore, TC on the most distal tooth in an arch showed 2.4 times higher risk for failure than TC on a more mesial tooth (1.5-3.8; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION For removable partial dentures retained by telescopic crowns, high success rates could be found after up to 12 years. Patient-level and tooth-level factors were significantly associated with failure. CLINICAL RELEVANCE For removable partial dentures retained by telescopic crowns, high success rates could be found after up to 12 years. Patient-level and tooth-level factors were significantly associated with failure

Dentareport - Automated longevity and risk factor analysis in dental patient care.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE During routine patient care practitioners have to document several aspects. However, currently it is difficult to methodically analyze the longevity of therapeutic concepts in dental private practice. Thus, the aim of the present paper was to introduce a software (Dentareport) to compare the success of different treatment options and to identify risk factors for failures in dental patient care. METHODS Dentareport has a digital interface to automatically collect data of electronic patient files of practice management programs. By using computer-aided routines descriptive analyses of the treatments can be visualized. Dentareport also visually displays a bivariate risk factor analysis of treatment options. For this, crude associations between baseline characteristics (e.g. age) and time until failure (e.g. tooth loss) are calculated for the chosen treatment option by fitting separate models for each baseline characteristic as the independent variable. Furthermore, annual failure rates and survival graphs can be displayed. RESULTS The software has already been used to self-analyze treatment decisions. It highlighted the most long-lasting treatments for specific indications. Risk factors on practice-, patient- and tooth-level were easily identified. Furthermore, the software has been used to collect data for analysis of retrospective practice-based, mono-as well as multi-center observational studies. CONCLUSIONS By using Dentareport practitioners can easily and objectively self-analyze treatment successes and risk factors. Furthermore, for researchers the software easily generates huge data sets in different fields in dentistry and enables the analysis on a multi-center level. Most relevant factors can, thus, be taken into account for treatment decisions