TIME ANALYSIS OF CHEWING PATTERNS DURING MASTICATION OF HARD AND SOFT BOLUS

摘要

The mastication is a complex motion, which individually reacts on changes in the chewing apparatus and which is able to cause its changes. A process duration and a trajectory of the mandible movement affect the direction and the size of all components of the acting chewing force. The experiment was aimed to detected a trajectory of the lower jaw movement, to measure a duration of the bolus processing of hard and soft aliments and to distinguish stages of the mastication. A method of the motion analysis for three-dimensional mandible movements recording was used for the purpose of this study. A record of the chewing of the every subject was split up to three parts (chopping, grinding and swallowing) and a duration of the mastication and a number of closing movements were estimated. All recorded data were statistically evaluated at the scope of 55 patients participating in the study. Resultant values measured in this pilot study suggest, that masticatory movements are very individual, so their relationships to directions and magnitudes of the acting chewing force should be more precisely examined, because the knowledge of the mandible movement during mastication is very important for the assessment of occlusal and the masticatory vectors.