What Should I Do If My Denture Breaks?

Take the denture out of your mouth right away. A broken denture with a sharp edge or a loose fragment can cut your gums, cheek or tongue, and a denture that no longer fits together properly will shift and create sore spots.

Collect every piece, including any teeth that have come off and any clasps. Put them in a clean, rigid container — a small plastic box or a denture case wrapped in a cloth so the fragments do not rub against each other. Do not clean the pieces with hot water, which can warp the acrylic.

Household adhesives and superglue are not designed for the mouth. They are toxic when ingested in small amounts over time, they do not bond dental acrylic properly, and they almost always distort the fit. A denture glued at the wrong angle will sit crookedly, create pressure points, and wear unevenly against your remaining teeth or gums.

Glue also contaminates the fracture surface. When we repair a denture, we have to grind away every trace of household adhesive before the professional repair material will bond — which means more material removed, a weaker repair, and sometimes a denture that can no longer be fixed at all.

We examine both the denture and your mouth. The repair itself depends on the damage: a clean fracture is rejoined with dental acrylic, a lost tooth is replaced and colour-matched, and a bent clasp is adjusted or replaced. We quote the fee before any work begins.

Equally important, we look for why it broke. A denture that has fractured more than once usually has an underlying fit problem — the gums have remodelled and the denture is now rocking under bite pressure. In that case a reline or a new denture is the real fix, and we will tell you honestly.