_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1498 https://www.id-press.eu/mjms/index ID Design Press, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences. 2018 Aug 20; 6(8):1498-1502. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2018.308 eISSN: 1857-9655 Dental Science - Review Advantages of CAD/CAM versus Conventional Complete Dentures - A Review Nadica Mihajlo Janeva 1* , Gordana Kovacevska 1 , Saso Elencevski 1 , Sanja Panchevska 1 , Aneta Mijoska 1 , Bisera Lazarevska 2 1 Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; 2 University Dental Clinical Centre St. Pantelejmon, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Citation: Janeva NM, Kovacevska G, Elencevski S, Panchevska S, Mijoska A, Lazarevska B. Advantages of CAD/CAM versus Conventional Complete Dentures - A Review. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2018 Aug 20; 6(8):1498-1502. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2018.308 Keywords: CAD/CAM complete dentures; Digital complete dentures *Correspondence: Nadica Mihajlo Janeva. Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Ss.Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. E-mail: njaneva@stomfak.ukim.edu.mk Received: 07-Jul-2018; Revised: 23-Jul-2018; Accepted: 27-Jul-2018; Online first: 04-Aug-2018 Copyright: © 2018 Nadica Mihajlo Janeva, Gordana Kovacevska, Saso Elencevski, Sanja Panchevska, Aneta Mijoska, Bisera Lazarevska. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) Funding: This research did not receive any financial support Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist Abstract BACKGROUND: The introduction and evolution of CAD/CAM technology into complete dentures fabrication brought high expectations in improving disadvantages associated with conventional methods. AIM: The purpose of this review was to analyse the existing literature on computer-engineered complete dentures and to determine their advantages over the conventional dentures. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An electronic search of the English literature from January 1994 to March 2018 was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, using the following keywords: CAD/CAM complete dentures, computer- engineered complete dentures, complete digital dentures, complete milled dentures, and rapid prototyping dentures. RESULTS: A total of 179 English language titles were obtained from the database, and 14 were relevant to fulfil the purpose of this review. A review of 7 articles is summarized in 2 tables for presenting a comparison between CAD/CAM and conventional dentures in clinical and laboratory studies. CONCLUSION: Following the review of articles that discussed the comparison between CAD/CAM and conventional complete dentures in clinical studies, it can be concluded that the main advantages of CAD/CAM dentures are the reduced clinical chair time and the number of visits, digital archiving, significantly higher retention, and more favorable clinical and patient-centered outcomes. As a result of the review of laboratory studies, superior mechanical and physical properties in CAD/CAM dentures were revealed, concerning enhanced accuracy of fit of milled denture bases, less denture tooth movement and increased toughness, ultimate flexural strength, and higher elastic modulus. Introduction Due to the increase in population lifespan, the need for dental treatment for edentulous people has become bigger. Despite the advancements in dental treatment possibilities for edentulism, and although implant-assisted complete dentures (CDs) are reported to be more efficient and more preferable option for edentulous patients, conventional CDs remain a choice, due to anatomical, physiological or financial restrictions [1]. Since the conventional method of fabricating CDs was established more than 80 years ago, the continuing goal was to improve all the drawbacks associated with the process of fabrication, and enhancements of the properties of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) material. The introduction and evolution of computer-aided technology in the field of CD fabrication is expected to overcome the complications related to conventional CDs and to facilitate the fabrication process. The first scientific paper on the use of a computer-aided system for designing and fabricating CDs was published by Maeda et al., in 1994, and these first CAD/CAM CDs were made by additive RP technology, from photo-polymerised acrylate material using a 3-D laser lithographic (LL) machine [2]. Since then, because of the complexity of the procedures for fabricating CDs, it took almost 20 years for the emergence of the first commercially available denture systems. Katadiyil et al., present the procedures for the production of digital CDs for the first two CAD/CAM commercial prostheses-AvaDent digital prostheses (Global Dental Science LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz.) and the Dentca CAD/CAM prosthesis system