Abstract
It is known that excessive strain and strength of the perioral musculature greatly affect dentition and the alveolar process. I devised a lip pressure gauge capable of separately measuring upper and lower lip pressure, and then measured lip pressure in 507 subjects with normal occlusion (244 males and 263 females, aged 7 to 18 years) after confirming the reproducibility of measurement. As a result, (1) lower lip pressure was significantly stronger than upper lip pressure;(2) lip pressure in males was significantly stronger than in females;(3) both upper and lower lip pressures increased with age;(4) the ratio of upper and lower lip pressures was approximately 1: 1.2 to 1.3.
