Twenty-five years ago the PhD-thesis ´Dentures happy ventures?´ of Kalk described the problems and reasons for (dis)satisfaction with complete dentures. In this article an overview is given of different PhD-theses in the Netherlands which have further elaborated and analyzed the problems of the compromised edentulous patient. More insight was gained in the aetiology and the background of edentulism and dissatisfaction with complete dentures. Nowadays, it is known which treatment strategies can retard bone loss and it is also known that pre-prosthetic surgery is less effective in resolving severe alveolar bone loss than expected. In the Netherlands, randomized clinical trials have shown that a mandibular overdenture retained by two or four implants is very effective in compromised edentulous patients.