Abstract
The purposes of this study were to examine the
differences in masticatory function of children
with different dental stages when they chew
pieces of chewing gum with various volume and
hardness, and to examine the relationships of the
number of chewing strokes to masticatory efficiency
as well as maximum bite force. Forty-six
children (7.9±2.4 years old) and eleven adults
(28.5±7.1 years old) participated in this study.
The subjects chewed three pieces of colorchangeable
chewing gum with different volumes
and one piece of hard gum and the number of
chewing strokes per minute, masticatory efficiency,
and maximum bite force were determined. It was
concluded that the ‘adaptability’ of masticatory
function of children to the different volume and
hardness increased with the development.
Significant correlation was found between the
ratio of the number of chewing strokes in hard gum
chewing to that in soft gum chewing and the maximum
bite force of children with deciduous dentition
