Assessment of mastication with implications for oral rehabilitation: a review

Abstract

During chewing, food is reduced in size, while saliva moistens the food and binds the masticated food into a bolus that can be easily swallowed. Characteristics of the oral system, like number of teeth, bite force and salivary flow, will influence the masticatory process. Masticatory function of healthy persons has been studied extensively the last decades. These results were used as a comparison for outcomes of various patient groups. In this review, findings from literature on masticatory function for both healthy persons and patient groups are presented. Masticatory function of patients with compromised dentition appeared to be significantly reduced when compared with the function of healthy controls. The influence of oral rehabilitation, e.g. dental restorations, implant treatment and temporomandibular disorder treatment, on masticatory function will be discussed. For instance, implant treatment was shown to have a significant positive effect on both bite force and masticatory performance. Also, patient satisfaction with an implant-retained prosthesis was high in comparison with the situation before implant treatment. The article also reviews the neuromuscular control of chewing. The jaw muscle activity needed to break solid food is largely reflexly induced. Immediate muscle response is necessary to maintain a constant chewing rhythm under varying food resistance conditions. Finally, the influence of food characteristics on the masticatory process is discussed. Dry and hard products require more chewing cycles before swallowing than moist and soft foods. More time is needed to break the food and to add enough saliva to form a cohesive bolus suitable for swallowing.

Swallowing threshold parameters of subjects with complete dentures and overdentures

“…Other determinants are saliva, muscles (influencing bite force), and cultural habits and personality. In other words, also cultural and personality traits determine 'slow' and 'fast' swallowers [9,10,[16][17][18]. The multifactorial nature of the chewing process undoubtedly explains the large individual differences in the outcomes of this study on swallowing threshold parameters.…”

Is the side with the best masticatory performance selected for chewing?

“…3 Number of teeth, occlusal contact area, bite force and salivary flow, are all factors that can affect masticatory performance. 4 Although mastication may occur bilaterally or alternating both sides, it is thought that the majority of people chew more on one particular side, i.e. they have a preferred chewing side (PCS).…”

Influência da hipermobilidade articular generalizada sobre a articulação teoromandibular, mastigação e deglutição: estudo transversal

“…The presence of atypical muscle contractions was observed both in mastication and in deglutition, with no significant difference between groups (Figure 3). activity, force, motion, as well as time and pattern of chewing 13,29,30 .…”

“…Aspects such as strength, time and type of mastication can be affected by changes in proprioception 13 , and changes in neuromuscular coordination may lead to mastication and deglutition disorders 7,14 .…”