Abstract
In order to improve the trajectory of tongue movement, increase tongue muscle strength and improve the coordination of the lips and other organs during swallowing, we developed a fixed tongue exercise in which oral functions are taken into consideration. Using the monitoring system developed by Kawashima, we measured with an ultrasound system the time required for various tongue movements and with a strain-gauge pressure transducer the tongue pressure.
Using the data obtained, we evaluated the reproducibility of fixed tongue exercise movements and obtained the following results.
1. Analysis of the ultrasound images revealed no difference in the duration of tongue movement among the subjects, and the data obtained when the same experiments were performed at one week intervals for three weeks or 10 times in one day varied little for each subject. Also, the time required for each movement in a series of cyclic tongue movements differed among the subjects.
The duration of downward movement but not the time requierd for upward contact or downward contact or the duration of upward movement differed between experiments performed at one-week intervals. When the exercise was repeated 10 times in one day, the time required for downward contact varied whereas the time required for upward contact and the duration of upward movement or downward movement did not.
2. In the tongue pressure measurements performed using the straingauge pressure transducer, differences were observed among the subjects in the maximum tongue pressure, the time required for pressure generation, the product of these two, and the pressure disappearance time, but not in the maximum tongue pressure duration. Moreover, the values of the first three of these parameters differed markedly and the tongue pressure disappearance time and the maximum tongue pressure duration differed slightly between experiments performed at one-week intervals. The values of none of the above mentioned parameters varied markedly during the repeated test.
