Removable partial dentures designed by dentists before and after graduate level instruction: a comparative study.

Abstract A group of 19 officers in the Naval Dental Corps from 15 different dental schools, who had graduated from 6 to 10 years earlier, designed removable partial dentures for four typical situations. Evaluation of each design was based on the requirement that the design features, as indicated on the cast and the work authorization card, would be clear and meaningful to the laboratory technician. In all, 152 casts and cards were evaluated. The designs were developed by the dental officers before and after 33 hours of classroom and laboratory instruction in the design and fabrication of removable partial dentures. The collected data indicated that, following the course of instruction, the group improved in every category being evaluated. It would seem that 33 hours is a rather small amount of time to spend to achieve the results indicated by the data.