This paper aimed to study the influence of denture base design and the shape of the denture-supporting area on the functional deformation of maxillary complete dentures. Six strain-gauged duplicate maxillary dentures were made for the study of two test subjects with different shapes of the palatal vault. Each subject was supplied with two polymethyl methacrylate dentures, one with a 1-mm-thick palatal base and the other 2 mm thick. A third denture was constructed with a cobalt-chromium base. The functional loading tests included maximum biting and the chewing of the food test samples. An analysis based on chewing time and total number of chewing cycles per test piece was also made. The results showed that surface straining is highly complex at the anterior part of the maxillary dentures constructed from polymethyl methacrylate and that increasing the denture thickness per se might not be accompanied by a reduction of strain. The results also suggest that high thrust to the supporting tissue is produced with high palatal vault dentures made in polymethyl methacrylate. The study proposes that cobalt-chromium bases may be used in maxillary dentures to reduce functional deformation and thrust to the supporting tissues at the anterior part of the maxilla.