Introduction & Objective: Chemical disinfectants should have minimum side effects on the denture base surface so they can reduce the amount of plaque accumulation. This study evaluates the effect of chemical disinfectants (glutaraldehyde 2% and sodium hypochlorite 1%, 2.5% and 5.25%) on surface roughness of heat cure acrylic denture.

Materials & Methods: Fifty specimens were fabricated with the dimensions of 3.1 × 70.2× 10.2× mm from heat polymerized denture base resin. Specimens were randomly assigned to 5 groups (n=10). A group was considered as control group and the other groups were immersed in one of the disinfectants for 10 minutes and then surface roughness of the specimens was measured by profilometer. Data were collected and statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA test.

Results: The surface roughness of specimens immersed in glutaraldehyde was minimum (0.53± 0.14 µ) and had no significant difference with the control groups (P> 0.05). The mean surface roughness of the specimens immersed in sodium hypochlorite 5.25% was maximum (1.06 ± 0.16 µ) and had a significant difference with the other groups (P= 0.000).

Conclusion: The surface roughness of heat polymerized denture base resin subjected to sodium hypochlorite 5.25% increased significantly.