Prosthodontic Management of a Patient with Parkinson’s Disease- A Case Report

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder characterized by tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability. Impairment of motor skills and cognition compromise the patient’s diet, nutrition and ability to maintain proper oral hygiene. As a result dental caries and edentulism seem to be a direct impending predicament. It is important to understand that people with parkinson’s disease start experiencing symptoms later in the course of the disease because a significant amount of the substantia nigra neurons have already been lost or impaired. Lewy bodies (accumulation of abnormal alphasynuclein) are found in substantia nigra neurons of PD patients. In addition to movement-related (motor) symptoms, Parkinson’s symptoms may be unrelated to movement (non-motor). People with Parkinson’s disease are often more impacted by their non-motor symptoms than motor symptoms such as apathy, depression, constipation, sleep behavior disorders, loss of sense of smell and cognitive impairment. Prosthodontics management of patients with parkinson’s disease require diligent handling. Objectives and Methods: A patient with a history of Parkinsons disease for the past 5 years (under medication) visited Saveetha dental college with the chief complaint of broken prosthesis. High impact resin was chosen to be material of choice for this patient due to its high flexural strength. So the prosthetic phase was modified and a drug delivery denture was fabricated to meet the demands of this patient. Results: Drug delivering partial denture was fabricated to meet the esthetic demands of the patient as well as to deliver the extended release formulation of the drug for managing the motor fluctuations.