The Test of Masticating and Swallowing Solids (TOMASS): Normative data for the adult Indian population
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Updated: Nov 9, 2025

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Rahul Krishnamurthy1, Siddarth Kothari1, Radish Kumar Balasubramanium1
1Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology1@ASLPKMCMLR, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education2@MAHE_manipal, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Abstract:
This data article accompanies the manuscript titled 'The Test of Masticating and Swallowing Solids (TOMASS): reliability, validity and normative data for the adult Indian population.' TOMASS is a widely used procedure to assess the effectiveness of solid bolus ingestion. Previous studies have established normative values for 4 to 80+ years across a range of commercially available crackers and countries. In this data set we report normative TOMASS data for the adult Indian population. Data was recorded from 300 typical individuals in the age range of 21 to 80 years grouped by age and sex. Participants were instructed to eat a commercially (locally) available biscuit 'as quickly and comfortably as possible,' and the task was video recorded. The recorded video samples were analyzed to obtain measures of the number of bites, number of masticatory cycles, number of swallows, and total time taken to complete the ingestion of biscuit.
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