Study of occlusal acoustic parameters in assessing masticatory performance

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Acoustics
• Human Physiology

Background:

• Masticatory studies traditionally focus on food properties or jaw movements.
• Masticatory sound research is limited by sound collection and analysis challenges.
• The relationship between acoustic parameters and mastication performance is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore acoustic parameters for measuring mastication performance.
• To investigate the correlation between acoustic and occlusal parameters during chewing.
• To assess the utility of bone-conduction techniques and sound analysis in mastication studies.

Main Methods:

• Recorded gnathosonic and chewing sounds from 56 healthy volunteers using bone-conduction microphones.
• Analyzed food particle size (D50), chewing time (CT), chewing cycles (CC), and chewing frequency (CF).
• Measured acoustic parameters including pitch and intensity (MI) of mastication sounds, employing statistical analyses.

Main Results:

• Significant sex-based differences were found in chewing cycles, mastication sound intensity (MIa), chewing frequency (CF), and particle size (D50a).
• Women exhibited a higher masticatory degree than men.
• Strong negative correlations were observed between mastication sound intensity (MIa/MIb) and particle size (D50a/D50b).

Conclusions:

• Mastication sound intensity shows potential as a valuable indicator for assessing mastication.
• Acoustic analysis provides a convenient and rapid method for evaluating mastication performance.