[Chewing force discrimination in a biofeedback experiment]

Chewing forces were measured in a needle point tracing while the patients could view their actual and the proposed chewing forces (5 N, 10 N and 30 N) on a computer screen (biofeedback). Most probands used less than the proposed forces in the experiments. All probands approached the proposed level of force step by step. Fatigue of the chewing muscles led to a change in the Fourier-transformation of the recorded samples: An increase in short-waved components (frequencies of approximately 1 Hz) was found.