Prostho(RPD)

CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS As described in the previous chapter, diagnosis is the determination of the nature of the disease. Diagnosis can be broadly classified as clinical diagnosis and post-clinical or derived diagnosis. Clinical diagnosis includes personality evaluation, clinical examination and radiographic examination. Post-clinical or derived diagnosis deals with the evaluation of the patient's condition using the diagnostic data collected during clinical diagnosis. Clinical diagnostic procedures like patient evaluation and clinical examination have been discussed in detail for complete dentures in Chapter 2. Most of the diagnostic procedures described in Chapter 2 (cd diagnosis)are used in the diagnosis of a partially edentulous condition. Hence, we have skipped the detailed description of the repeating topics. In this section, we will discuss only about the additional clinical diagnostic procedures required to diagnose a partially edentulous condition. 1.A. Consequence of Tooth Loss Tooth loss over long period of time can produce dramatic effects on the existing teeth. These changes have to be managed and corrected before the fabrication of a removable dental prostheses (Fig. 17.1A). 2. CLINICAL EVALUATION OF THE EXISTING TEETH This is very important for the success of a partial denture. The remaining teeth are the primary supporting structures for most removable partial dentures. Evaluation of existing teeth comes under the local clinical examination stage in diagnosis. The following factors should be evaluated on the remaining natural teeth.