Broken Denture: What to Do, and What a Repair Costs

A denture in two pieces feels like a small disaster when it happens, and it is one of the most mendable things in the whole of dentistry. Keep every piece, leave the glue in the drawer, and by the end of this page you will know what happens next and exactly what it costs.

My denture has broken: what should I do right now?

First, take it out, even if it still sort of holds together. A broken edge can be as sharp as a snapped plastic ruler, and it will find your gum or your tongue before long. A denture with a crack across it is the same story in slow motion. Every bite flexes it a little, and each flex pushes the crack a bit further, like a stone chip in a windscreen creeping across the glass. Keep wearing it and a crack that could have been mended can become two halves.

Then gather up every piece you can find, however small, and any tooth that has popped off. You see, a broken denture goes back together like a jigsaw, and the person mending it lines the broken edges up against each other to get the shape exactly right. Wrap the pieces so their edges cannot knock against each other: a clean sandwich bag with a little damp cotton wool is ideal. That happens to be one of the ways nhs.uk suggests keeping dentures overnight anyway.

And then ring a dentist. nhs.uk puts it simply: “if your dentures break, bring any broken parts to the dentist so they can check if they’re able to repair them.” That is the whole of the advice, and it is the right advice, because nobody can tell from the kitchen table how simple a break really is.

If you are reading this for your mum or dad, all of this applies just the same, and they do not need to be anybody’s patient to be seen.

Can I glue my denture back together?

Please don’t, even though the superglue is right there and the pieces fit so neatly in your hand. Household glue was never made for the inside of a mouth. A denture spends its day in warm saliva taking the full force of chewing, which is a very different life from a mended mug on a shelf.

The bigger trouble is the fit. A denture sits on your gums the way a key sits in a lock, and a join that is a hair out of line rocks and rubs every time you bite. Think of a pair of glasses glued back together at home. They look fine, yet they sit a little crooked, and you feel it all day.

Then, when the denture does go in to be mended, the glue has to be ground out of the join before a proper repair will bond. Once it has gone, the edges no longer meet as exactly as they did. So glue tonight can turn a simple repair into a harder one, and sometimes into a new denture.

Pharmacy denture repair kits run into the same trouble, so the kindest thing for the denture is to keep the pieces just as they broke until it can be mended properly.

Can a snapped denture be repaired, or will I need a new one?

Usually it can be repaired. Most of a denture is acrylic, the pink part that holds the teeth and is shaped like your gums. Acrylic can be joined with more acrylic, so the mend is made of the same stuff as the rest.

What decides it is the kind of break, and you can often tell which you have.

A clean break straight through the plate, where the two halves fit together like a snapped biscuit, is the classic repair, and about the friendliest break a denture can have.

A tooth that has come off is another everyday job. If you still have the tooth, it can usually go back on; if it has vanished down the plughole, a new one can be set in its place.

A crack near a clasp takes a little more. The clasp is the small metal arm on a partial denture that hooks round one of your own teeth to hold it steady. The plastic around it works hard, and sometimes the clasp itself has snapped and needs replacing.

Then there is the denture that broke because it had stopped fitting. nhs.uk explains why dentures loosen: “They may become loose as your gums and jawbone shrink or change shape as you get older.” A loose denture rocks a little with every bite, like a table with one short leg, and all that rocking strains the same line until one day it gives. Mending the break does nothing for the fit, so the same line is likely to go again. That is when a new denture is the honest answer, and a good dentist will say so before you pay for a repair that will not last.

How much does a broken denture repair cost?

Here is the part most denture pages leave out: a figure. The Designer Smiles fee guide publishes them all, so you know before you pick up the phone.

Whether yours is a simple or a complex repair is decided when the denture is looked at, and you are told, with its figure, before it is done. Where the fee guide says from, the figure for your own denture is written down at the examination before anything is done.

If it does come to a new denture, acrylic is the all-plastic kind, and cobalt chrome is built on a thin metal frame, which lets it be slimmer and stronger.

If you cannot manage without your denture until an ordinary appointment, the emergency visit is £27.90 in practice hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm), the same figure as the NHS urgent charge, and £150 outside them. It covers the examination and getting you comfortable, and the repair is priced on top from the same fee guide. Payment is on the day, and there is 0% finance through Tabeo for the larger work. Every price we charge is in our full fee guide, and what an emergency dentist costs in Solihull sets our emergency fee beside the fees other practices publish.

Can my denture be repaired the same day?

Sometimes. It depends on two things.

The first is the break itself. A single clean crack, or a tooth going back on, is a small job. A denture in several pieces, or one that needs a new clasp, is a bigger one.

The second is where the repair is made. A denture is mended in acrylic that has to set hard and then be shaped and polished, much as a plaster cast has to set before it takes your weight. That work is usually done by a dental technician. Where the technician works on the premises, the denture never leaves the building; where it goes out to a dental laboratory, the time depends on the lab.

So the answer for your own denture comes from whoever looks at it. What we can tell you for certain is the part that is ours. In practice hours, a broken denture you cannot do without is one of the emergencies we set out to see the same day, and you do not need to be a patient here already. Whatever the denture needs is priced and agreed with you before it is done. How the same-day emergency appointment runs is on our emergency page, and every way to be seen today in Solihull, the NHS routes included, is in our guide to emergency dentists.

And if you have a spare to wear, or the break is a small chip that is not bothering you, there is no rush; an ordinary appointment is perfectly fine.

Are denture repairs free on the NHS?

Yes, in England they are, and if you have an NHS dentist this is the cheaper door, so we would much rather you knew it. nhs.uk lists the dental treatments you do not pay for, and one of them reads: “your false teeth (dentures) need to be repaired”. There is a catch in the very same line: “if they cannot be repaired you’ll have to pay for new ones”.

New dentures on the NHS fall in Band 3, £332.10, which nhs.uk describes as including “false teeth (dentures) made from plastic or metal”. Adding to a denture is a different thing from mending a part that broke, and it falls in Band 2, £76.60; nhs.uk’s example is “adding to your false teeth (dentures), such as adding a clasp or a tooth”. An urgent NHS appointment, at £27.90, can include “adjustment and alteration of false teeth (dentures)”.

If you have no NHS dentist, how NHS urgent dental care works, through NHS 111 or by ringing a dentist yourself, is on our NHS emergency dentist page. And if you would rather be seen the same day in practice hours, with the prices in front of you, that is where we come in.

How do I stop my denture breaking again?

Well, it starts with gentleness at the sink. nhs.uk’s advice is to clean dentures “over a sink filled with water, or something soft such as a towel”, and it gives the reason in the same breath: “they can break if you drop them.”

The same page says “do not clean your dentures with toothpaste”, because “it could damage them”; soft soap or washing up liquid is what it suggests instead.

And keep seeing a dentist, even with no teeth of your own left. Your gums change shape slowly, and a denture that has started to rock can be adjusted before the rocking finds its weak line.

So there is the whole map. Take it out if it is sharp or cracked, keep every piece, and leave the glue where it is. Most broken dentures can be mended: £76.60 for a simple repair here and £150 for a complex one, or free on the NHS if you have an NHS dentist to take it to. If you cannot do without it, ring us on 0121 709 3821, book online, or message us on WhatsApp, and in practice hours we will set out to see you the same day.