Working with telescopic crowns – a survey among dental technicians

When designing removable partial dentures (RPDs), the appropriate choice of design, the retention components, and the materials from which the dentures will be fabricated, are crucial for the outcome of the prosthetic treatment. Telescopic crowns are used both in combined prosthetics (as a complex retention component) and in the manufacturing of complex removable bridge dentures. The main goal of this survey was to analyze the awareness among dental technicians in Bulgaria of the principles of work with telescopic crowns.
A survey was conducted among dental technicians practicing in the country. It was conducted during the February - July 2018 period and included a total of 65 respondents. The obtained results were processed with the aid of the programming language R, and by utilizing analysis of association between variables, as well as descriptive and graphical methods.
In the survey, the number of dental technicians who have manufactured telescopic crowns only just exceeds the number of those who have not worked with this type of constructions. In addition, in terms of manufacturing, the use of the classical model casting and milling techniques are still the preferred choice over innovative technologies such as FGP and 3D printing. Given these results, it is recommended that dental technicians boost their knowledge of innovative manufacturing techniques, and as a result begin to use these fabrication methods more frequently in their practice.