Orthodontics and Prosthodontics—A Common Basis for Diagnosis, Treatment Planning and Research
With a dentate patient parameters are clearly defined. In the absence of pre-extraction data the prosthetic restoration of an edentulous patient can present considerable difficulty. Failure on the part of the individual to adapt to prosthetic treatment may in many instances be attributable to errors in diagnosis and treatment planning. An appreciation of the range of variation of hard and soft-tissue morphology in the population is a necessary Pre-requisite to successful long-term treatment. An attempt is made in this paper to show the common basis which exists between orthodontics and prosthetic dentistry in aspects of diagnosis. The application of concepts Well established in orthodontics to prosthetic treatment is discussed in addition to possible avenues of joint research between the two specialities of dentistry.