This study tested whether information obtained from an inventory of denture-related variables can help a dentist recognise the potentially slowly adapting denture patient. Sixty-one patients completed an inventory of denture complaints prior to the fabrication of complete maxillary and mandibular dentures. Subjects were subsequently divided into groups of slowly adapting and rapidly adapting patients. A clinically derived classification was compared to a theoretic model. Seventy-four percent of the theoretically slowly adapting patients and 89% of the theoretically rapidly adapting patients corresponded with their clinical classifications.