Faculty of dentistry

Mastication and Deglutition

Dr/ Norhan Sobhy
By the end of this lecture the student will be able to:
1. Describe the mastication reflex.
2. List its functions.
3. Explain how food is swallowed and transferred to the stomach (Deglutition
reflex).

Mastication reflex, fig (1):

 The teeth are designed for chewing, the anterior teeth (incisors) providing a
strong cutting action and the posterior teeth (molars), a grinding action.
 Most of the muscles of chewing are innervated by the motor branch of the fifth
cranial nerve, and the chewing process is controlled by nuclei in the brain stem.
 Much of the chewing process is caused by a chewing reflex, which may be
explained as follows:
• The presence of a bolus of food in the mouth at first initiates reflex inhibition
of the muscles of mastication, which allows the lower jaw to drop.
• The drop in turn initiates a stretch reflex of the jaw muscles that leads to
rebound contraction. This automatically raises the jaw to cause closure of the
teeth, but it also compresses the bolus again against the linings of the mouth,
which inhibits the jaw muscles once again, allowing the jaw to drop and
rebound another time; this is repeated again and again.

Figure (1): Chewing reflex.

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Importance of mastication (chewing):
1. Swallowing: by breaking the bolus into smaller pieces that could be better
lubricated by mixing with saliva.
2. Digestion: by breaking large particles of food into smaller ones to facilitate the
action of enzymes.
3. It also breaks the indigestible cellulose membrane around the digestible
portion of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Deglutition (swallowing):
• Deglutition is the transfer of food from the mouth to the stomach. Various
groups of muscles, striated and plain, take part in this highly coordinated
action.
• The start of deglutition is voluntary, but it is completed by reflex actions.
• The deglutition centre is in the medulla oblongata.
• Speed of swallowing depends on the consistency of food. Fluids reach the
stomach very rapidly (in about 6 seconds). Semisolids take a longer time than
fluids and solid materials are slower than semisolids.

Phases of deglutition, fig (2):

Deglutition is divided into 3 phases to facilitate its description but really once
the first phase is started the others follow without an interval in between.
1) The first (voluntary) phase :
Food in the mouth is voluntarily squeezed or rolled posteriorly into the pharynx
by pressure of the tongue upward and backward against the palate.
2) The second (pharyngeal) phase :
It is an involuntary reflex and starts by the passage of food through the pharynx.
It is a very rapid phase which takes about 1-2 seconds. The constrictor muscles of the
pharynx contract, with receptive relaxation of the upper oesophageal sphincter. The
posterior pillars of the fauces approximate to shut off the mouth cavity from the
pharynx and prevent the back passage of food to it.

 Important protective reflexes take place to prevent the passage of food into the
respiratory openings:
a) Elevation of the soft palate to shut off the posterior nares and prevent the
passage of food into the nasal cavity.

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 b) Elevation of the larynx and closure of its opening (glottis) by the epiglottis
and posterior part of the tongue and approximation of the vocal cords to guard against
the passage of food into the air ways.
c) Inhibition of respiration by a reflex mechanism (reflex apnea). In
anaesthesia, the cough and swallowing centers are depressed, and the protective
reflexes do not occur. Secretion or vomitus may accumulate in the pharynx and enter
the trachea leading to choking.

Figure (2): Movement of food through the pharynx and upper oesophagus
during swallowing.

3) The third (oesophageal) phase

In this involuntary phase, food passes along the oesophagus to the stomach by
oesophageal peristaltic contractions. The movements in the upper third of the
oesophagus are rapid while those in the lower third are slow, because the muscles of
the upper third are striated and supplied by the vagus nerve while in its lower
third are plain and depend on local plexus of Auerbach. The middle third
contains both types of muscles. This phase is helped by mucin and gravity in erect
position.

Nervous pathways in deglutition, fig (3):

The reflexes of the involuntary phases are mediated by:
Afferents: start from receptors that discharge impulses from the upper pharynx
along the 5th, 9th, 10th cranial nerves.
Centre: is the deglutition centre in the medulla oblongata.
Efferents: are along the 5th cranial nerve to mylohyoid muscles, the 9th,10th and
11th cranial nerves to the pharyngeal and oesophageal muscles and the 12thcranial
nerve to the tongue muscles.

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Figure (3): Nervous pathway in deglutition.

Best wishes