Abstract
The Purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of the masticatory rhythm among jellies composed of three different textures youngsters subjects. A total of 5 healthy subjects (2 male and 3female) with a mean age of 4.8 years were selected on the basis that they agreed to participate in the study and did not exhibit signs or symptoms of TMD. A jaw function tracking system (Gnatho Hexagraph, GC, Tokyo, Japan) tracked the movement of the edge of lower central incisor.5 adult volunteers with a mean age of 22.4 years also participated in the study for comparison of the characteristics of the jaw movements between the youngsters and adults. Jellies with three different textures for the test contained 3%,5% and 7% gelatin, respectively, and were standardized at the size of a 13 mm cube with a weight of 3.5 g. We assessed the opening time, closing time, occluding time and cycle time of the 10 strokes of the movement beginning with the fifth stroke of the mastication as the mastication rhythm parameter. The results indicated that the closing time was significantly dependent on the food texture (p<0.05) in youngsters, whereas the cycle time was constant in both youngsters and adults patients. We concluded that masticatory rhythm in youngsters was more unstable than in adults, because the phase was directly affected by the food texture.
