Prosthetic care for a mentally ill patient.

A manic-depressive 64 old female arrived to the clinic for prosthetic treatment. She was fully edentulous and wore an old poor set of complete dentures. Her general attitude was apathy, nonattached and almost indifferent to the general environment as well as to the proposed oral care. This behavior can change for the worse at any stage during treatment, especially after the delivery stage, with the possibility of a change from an indifferent to a hostile, non cooperative attitude. The intended care was explained in detail to the patient and her accompanying daughter. After their approval, we were able to perform successfully a new set of complete dentures with improved esthetics and functional capabilities. Flat bony ridges with shallow mucosal coverage precluded vertical mandibular denture extension at the lingual surface. Consequently the resulting prosthesis had reduced lateral lingual flanges with limited support and retation.