PROSTHETIC REHABLITACIN OBJECTIVES IN TOTAL TOOTHLESS INTRODUCTION The loss of natural teeth and the resulting transformation of the

individual in a totally edentulous, is for many the failure of modern dentistry, representing the sad result of a fundamentally therapeutic rather than preventive odontology. The complete rehabilitation of the edentulous patient requires a Total Prosthesis, which should return the esthetics, phonetics, and lost masticatory function, also must be stable. The selection of artificial teeth for complete and partial dentures is a phase in oral rehabilitation widely denied by many dentists who inappropriately delegate this critical phase of oral rehabilitation to the technician. The appearance of full and partial removable dentures requires creativity and artistic ability, preservation of tissues requires knowledge of basic sciences, and the selection of artificial teeth is closely related to both the appearance or aesthetics and preservation of tissues. Several philosophies for the selection of the shape and size of the posterior teeth should be understood and used in relation to the concepts that the dentist handles on balanced occlusion. After the loss of teeth there is little or no reference point on the shape and color of teeth, their distribution in the three dimension and the relationship between the jaws and the occlusion shape of the masticatory complex, therefore adaptive capacity of the individual to the prosthesis is highly variable and in many cases full dentures are rejected or not tolerated