Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this research was to develop a novel method to quantitatively evaluate chewing features during daily meal events.
Methods: An occlusal tooth contact sensor with a bone conduction sound system was used as a chewing counter, and surface electromyography of the masseter muscle and a previously used chewing counter (bitescan) were also used to evaluate the validity of the novel chewing counter. The number of chewing cycles and other chewing features were recorded in 10 adult volunteers while eating lunch.
Results: The average number of chewing cycles was 541, the mean duration of chewing was 11.0 minutes, and the chewing speed was 51.3 cycles/minute.
Conclusion: The chewing features measured with the novel method exhibited good consistency with the other chewing counting methods.