Few studies have documented the impact of dentures on patients’ oral health-related quality of life. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gender, age, socioeconomic status and denture satisfaction and oral health-related quality of life. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 52 patients. These patients were randomly selected from the waiting list for complete dentures in the Department of Prosthetics at the Tygerberg Oral Health Centre. All patients completed an informed consent form and were interviewed using the OHIP-EDENT (Oral Health Impact Profile for Edentulous Patients). Patients also completed a global rating of satisfaction for their maxillary and mandibular dentures respectively using a Likert scale response. Results: 25 % of the sample population was male. Statistical analyses comparing gender, employment and education with the oral health related quality of life failed to show any significant relationships. However, a significant relationship was found between age and oral health related quality of life, with patients younger than 60 years having higher impact scores in the psychological disability and social disability domains than patients older than 60 years. Patients who were dissatisfied with their maxillary dentures scored significantly higher on the functional limitations, psychological discomfort and social discomfort domains compared to patients who were satisfied. Patients who were dissatisfied with their mandibular dentures scored significantly higher on all the domains compared to satisfied patients. Conclusions: This study shows that levels of denture satisfaction are significantly related to OHIP-EDENT impact scores, but the domains affected differ for maxillary and mandibular dentures.