Explain using detailed illustrations the Kennedy Classification system.

Explain using detailed illustrations the Kennedy Classification system.

1. Class I – posterior, bilateral free-end saddles

   • Kennedy Class I describes a patient who has BILATERAL free-end saddles, i.e. they have edentulous posterior areas bilaterally. This is the most comment classification. There are no further posterior teeth to the edentulous area. A free-end saddle is where the saddle is not resting on teeth on both sides (i.e. is lacking an abutment tooth).

2. Class II – posterior, unilateral free-end saddle

   • Kennedy Class II describes a patient who has a UNILATERAL free-end saddle, i.e. they have a one-sided, posterior edentulous area. They have no further teeth behind the edentulous area. As the image below shows, it is like a Class I but just covering one side of the arch.

3. Class III – posterior, unilateral bounded saddle

   • Kennedy Class III describes a patient who has a UNILATERAL BOUNDED POSTERIOR saddle. This means that the edentulous area has teeth located both anteriorly and posteriorly to it, as shown in the image below. As they do not possess free-end saddles, they tend to be far more secure cases when designing.

4. Class IV – anterior bounded saddle

   • Kennedy Class IV describes a patient with a SINGLE, ANTERIOR BOUNDED saddle. This is the rarest of the classifications.

5. Class I, II and III can have modifications.

   • Modifications refers to multiple edentulous areas present in a case. Modifications can only apply to Kennedy Classes I, II and III. This is because a Kennedy Class IV case with modifications would fall in to one of the other classifications, as these take priorities.