2021 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 42-48
Purpose: Quantifying the chewing function of denture wearers is important in evaluating the preoperative examination and postoperative course of denture prostheses. There are direct and indirect methods for measuring masticatory ability. When measuring masticatory ability in clinical practice, our department conducts a questionnaire survey using Sato’s chewing function evaluation table (“Chewing Score 20”). This is a method of comprehensively evaluating the chewing function of the denture wearer for ingestible food, and is a direct examination method. However, the method requires many food items and is time-consuming, and so further improvement is considered necessary.
The purpose of this study was to develop a chewing function evaluation table (“Chewing Score 10”) with 10 kinds of carefully selected food, and to examine its usefulness.
Methods: The 34 subjects were all upper and lower complete denture wearers. The items “never eaten” and “dislike” were added to Chewing Score 20. Two types of food were selected from the five groups classified by chewing index. We developed Chewing Score 10 by excluding foods that many people dislike. In addition, the correlations among Chewing Score 20, chewing efficiency, and Chewing Score 10 were examined.
Results: A very strong positive correlation was observed between the prototype Chewing Score 10 and Chewing Score 20 (r = 0.97, p<0.01). In addition, Chewing Score 10 was found to have a significant correlation of the same degree as Chewing Score 20 (r = 0.62, p<0.01) for masticatory ability (r = 0.57, p<0.01).
Conclusion: The usefulness of Chewing Score 10 was verified.
