Evaluation of occlusal force and masticatory performance in elderly adults with natural dentition unaffected by occlusal support

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify whether occlusal force and masticatory performance reduced in elderly adults and whether these parameters were affected by age. Methods: Seventy-eight elderly adults (elderly group) and 76 young adults (control group) with natural dentition were asked to maximally clench for 3 s, and occlusal force was calculated. The amount of glucose extraction after chewing a gummy jelly was measured as the parameter for masticatory performance. Occlusal force and masticatory performance were compared between the elderly and control groups. The correlation between age and occlusal force and between age and masticatory performance was also investigated. Results: Occlusal force was significantly smaller in the elderly group (P < 0.05). Masticatory performance was lower in the elderly group, but this difference was not statistically significant. No significant correlation was observed between age and occlusal force in the control group, but a negative correlation was found in the elderly group (P < 0.05). No significant correlation was found between age and masticatory performance in either group. Conclusion:Occlusal force was affected by age and reduced significantly, whereas masticatory performance was not affected by age and was maintained in elderly adults.

Reference value of masticatory performance by measuring the amount of glucose extraction from chewing gummy jelly

“…Functional differences in masticatory movements between the habitual chewing side and non-habitual chewing side have been observed [7,25] and studies adopting the habitual chewing side have been performed [12,26,27]. For this reason, studies have been conducted in which mastication on the habitual chewing side is used in the evaluation of MP [6,9,12,14,15,21,[28][29][30]. However, some reports have concluded that there are no functional differences between the chewing sides [31].…”

“…The results of this study can be said to prove their ideas. Sano et al [21] compared MP of adults with completely natural dentitions and found that the occlusal force is affected by aging, but MP was not affected by aging. They considered the reason as follows.…”

“…The sieve method has long been used to measure MP; however, this method has significant limitations, in that the operation is complicated, and the analysis is lengthy. Therefore, many methods using impression material [1], color-changing gum [2,3], paraffin wax [4], fuchsin beads [5], and gummy jelly [2,3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] have been reported. Of these, measuring the amount of glucose extraction (AGE) from chewing gummy jelly was the most advantageous.…”

“…Assessment of MP by measuring AGE from chewing gummy jelly is performed in healthy dentate adults [6,7,12,16,21], elderly adults [13,14,17,21], removable partial denture patients [2,3,10], re-movable complete denture patients [9,15,19], implant denture patients [10,11], mandibulectomy patients [20], and other groups. In addition, it has also been reported that AGE tends to decrease due to tooth loss [8,14], and increases after treatment [2,11,15] and with growth [18].…”

Effect of scan delay on measurements of an occlusal pressure sensitive film: An in-vitro study

“…Subsequent studies performed with DPS2 validated it as a reliable and reproducible system. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 A correlation between the maximum occlusal forces measured by DPS and DPS2 was suggested, and comparison between the two measurements could be made by applying corrections using a regression equation. 11 In 2016, the Japanese Society of Gerodontology proposed a definition of and diagnostic criteria for “oral hypofunction”.…”