Chewing-side determination of three food textures

Food texture affects chewing movement but it is not known if it also affects the chewing-side pattern. This study determined the chewing sides of three test foods with different textures during habitual chewing. Twenty healthy dental students (aged 20-24 years) chewed pieces of pork jerky, fresh asparagus and almonds on two separate sessions (1 week apart). In each session, each subject chewed 30 food specimens, 10 of the same food type, until swallowing while a video camera recorded the displacement of the chin with respect to the other two reference points vertically marked along the facial midline. A slow-speed video playback was used to identify the chewing side of each cycle. The chewing-side pattern (right preference, left preference, no preference) in each individual was determined statistically. The results showed that overall, 11 subjects did not have any side preference whereas six and three subjects preferred to chew on right or left sides respectively. The chewing-side pattern remained unchanged between three food types in about half of the subjects. When the same food was compared between 2 days, the chewing-side pattern of almonds was shown to be most reproducible (18 subjects). Unidentified cycles with little or no lateral displacement, labelled as bilateral, were observed more frequently near the end of the chewing sequence with more occurrences in almonds and jerky than asparagus (P < 0.01). It was suggested that chewing-side preference is not a fixed characteristic. Food texture seemed to influence the side preference and also the occurrence of bilateral cycles.