Clinical relevance of a simple fragmentation model to evaluate human masticatory performance

To explain the breakage process of food particles in human mastication, we propose a simple fragmentation model. To verify its clinical accuracy, a mechanical test with a sieving method and a natural test food (coffee) was performed on three groups of subjects. The values obtained permitted to demonstrate that the model could predict, at least qualitatively, the general trend of the experimental data, even for a very small group (two subjects). It also shows that the choice of the yielding factors used to calculate the masticatory index (MI) is relevant.