It was attempted to apply barrel finishing to improve the surface texture of the basal surface of the complete denture. The effect of barrel finishing on the denture base resin of rough surface should be confirmed to understand the alteration of the basal surface of complete denture after barrel finishing, because it is corrugated. The denture base resin samples with standardized corrugated surface were made using a metal mold, then each sample was divided into halves. One of the halves was barrel finished following the manufacturer's instruction after masking the datum plane, whereas the other one was used as a control without finishing. Both samples were observed under the reading microscope, and the distances between the base line and the top of each corrugation or the bottom of each corrugation were measured. Observation under the scanning electron microscope was also made. The results were as follows:
1. The scanning electron microscopic observations showed that the top of the corrugation was obviously made round and smooth by barrel finishing, and that the bottom of the corrugation was also made smooth but it was less smooth than the top of the corrugation.
2. The cutting depth of the denture base resin was 218.13μm at the top and 3.53μm at the bottom of the corrugation.
These findings suggest that there is no problem after barrel finishing of the basal surface of complete dentures even if attention was paid to the height of the bead established for the posterior palatal seal.
