Background: A midline fracture of single maxillary complete denture (CD) base especially in patients who have retained their natural mandibular teeth is an inevitable problem. Several factors have been attributed for the midline fracture including flexural fatigue resulting from cyclic deformation and those which exacerbate the deformation of the base or alter its stress distribution. Hence; the present study was undertaken to assess the common causes responsible for denture fracture. Materials & methods: The data for the present study included assessment of records of all the patients that received CD. A total of 100 patients were included from the present study after meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A detailed history of the fracture was taken from the patient and the denture was assessed for retention, stability, occlusal errors, etc by the clinician. All the results were analyzed by SPSS software. Results: 20 broken dentures had age of zero to two years. 29 and 17 broken dentures had age of two to four and four to six years respectively. Only 9 broken dentures had life of more than 10 years. Poor stability was the reason for breakage of dentures in 10 and 36 cases of maxillary and mandibular dentures respectively. Non-significant results were obtained while comparing the cause of breakage of dentures in maxillary and mandibular arches respectively. Conclusion: For the reduction of the accidental mishaps, proper patient education and motivation is required.
Key words: Denture, Fracture