A review of masticatory ability and efficiency

DDS Gunhild Boretti

a,
(Clinical Lecturer),
DDS, PhD Matthias Bickel
a
(Associate Professor),
DDS, PhDAlfred H. Geering
a
(Professor and Chairman)

Masticatory function can be assessed by chewing tests and questionnaires or personal interviews.
Whereas the chewing tests allow the assessment of masticatory efficiency with some objectivity,
questionnaires help evaluate a person's subjective responses about chewing ability. Epidemiologic
studies indicate a subjective decrease in chewing ability with increasing degree of tooth loss, a
trend that was confirmed in the literature. Of interest was that the subjective measures of
masticatory ability are often overrated when compared with the functional tests. Masticatory function
is a patient factor rather than a parameter that prosthetic treatment can qualify. If depends on a
variety of personal and subjective factors that can hardly be influenced by the practitioner. This
article describes and discusses scientific sociophysiologic and biomedical approaches to evaluating
masticatory function.

Reprint requests to: DR. G. BORETTI DEPARTMENT OF REMOVABLE PROSTHODONTICS
UNIVERSITY OF BERN FREIBURGSTRASSE 7 3010 BERN SWITZERLAND
a
Department of Removable Prosthodontics.
Copyright 1995 Published by Mosby, Inc.