The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between mastication and head posture using foods with different degrees of hardness. A total of 12 healthy, dentulous volunteers participated in the study. Each participant was required to chew two types of gummy candy with two levels of hardness while sitting upright. Measurements were conducted using an optoelectric jaw-trac...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect of oral rehabilitation with immediately loaded fixed implant-supported mandibular prostheses on chewing and swallowing in elderly individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifteen completely edentulous patients aged more than 60 years (10 women and five men), wearing removable dentures in both arches, had a mandibular denture replaced by an implant-supported prosthesis...

Masticatory muscle physiology has been evaluated mostly from electromyographic recordings. However, electromyography coupled with jaw-tracking devices has provided much more information of the correlation between jaw movements and muscle activity. Knowledge of how the mandible moves during mastication has greatly influenced procedures in clinical dentistry. The aim of this overview is to give b...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of botulinum toxin type A (BTA) injection into the salivary gland and to evaluate the changes of drooling in varied postures in tetraplegic patients with brain injury. METHODS Eight tetraplegic patients with brain injury were enrolled. BTA was injected into each parotid and submandibular gland of both sides under ultrasonographic guidance. Drooling was meas...

Teeth clenching has been shown to improve remote muscle activity (by augmentation of the Hoffmann reflex), and joint fixation (by decreased reciprocal inhibition) in the entire body. Clenching could help maintain balance, improve systemic function, and enhance safety. Teeth clenching from a sports dentistry viewpoint was thought to be important and challenging. Therefore, it is quite important ...

It has been recognized that mandibular movements evoke head movements during jaw tapping. However there have been only a few studies that investigated the aspects of head movements during mastication. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the hypothesis that the head moves actively in mastication in order to achieve effective destruction of a food bolus. Head and mandibular movements d...

BACKGROUND Temporomandibular disorder and mastication. AIM To compare subjects who present temporomandibular disorders to a control group considering mastication and to analyze the related variables. METHOD 20 subjects with temporomandibular disorder (TMD group) and 10 controls--selection based on clinical examination and anamnesis--responded to a questionnaire on the self-perception of pai...

Oral sensorimotor function is essential for mastication. We hypothesized that palatal coverage would disturb mastication and sensorimotor function. Masticatory efficiency, which was expressed by the declination rate of particle size, and oral stereognosis ability (OSA) were measured for 20 dentate subjects. Both measurements were first performed without an experimental palatal plate. These meas...

The present paper investigates an intuitive way of robot path planning, called robot teaching by demonstration. In this method, an operator holds the robot end-effector and moves it through a number of positions and orientations in order to teach it a desired task. The presented control architecture applies impedance control in such a way that the end-effector follows the operator’s hand with d...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and level of satisfaction of patients who underwent TMJ arthrocentesis under local anesthesia by considering the following parameters: joint pain, mouth opening, mastication, and satisfaction. Fourteen patients (13 women and one man; mean age, 37.6 years with TMJ arthralgia were selected. The patients underwent arthrocentesis under local a...