New Approach for Evaluation of Masticatory Performance

Objective: Consolidation of the method for evaluation of masticatory performance is necessary for provision of evidence-based medicine. To evaluate the masticatory performance, small wax particles contained chewing gum was developed. The purpose of this study is to examine relationship between traditional sieving method and this method to know whether the gum can be used instead of it.

Method: Seventeen normal dentate were participated in this study. 1.Gum method: The subjects chewed the gum for 25 times. Trial was one time in each side. After chewing, the gum was compressed between two plastic plates and small 8 pictures were taken. Average of remaining particles were automatically counted. The destruction ratio in each stroke was calculated from their score. We regarded the destruction ratio as performance of compression in the mastication; it was defined as compressive value (CV).2.Sieving method: The subjects chewed three grams of peanuts for 15 times. They repeated the test for 3 times in each side. Spitted bolus was washed by water, dried and sieved with 8 stacking sieves (3350μm, 2000μm, 1700μm, 1400μm, 1000μm, 850μm, 500μm, 355μm). The cumulative percentage on each sieves were averaged. The relation between CV and cumulative percentage were analyzed by linear regression.

Result: CV shows correlation with cumulative percentages on the 1700μm, 1400μm and 1000μm sieves.

Conclusion: The gum can be used instead of sieving method; it is possible to evaluate the performance easily in clinic.