The purpose of this research was to simulate the relationship between the masticatory muscular force and the mandibular shape using the shape optimization method, which was developed in the field of mechanical engineering. The two factors studied were as follows:
First: Whether or not there is a relationship between the masticatory muscular force and the mandibular shape. It was found that the optimum shape obtained by applying the masticatory muscular force with this method was similar to the actual mandibular shape. This suggests that there is a relationship between the muscular force and the bone shape.
Second: On the basis of the above-mentioned result, the factor between the variations in the force of the masticatory muscles and in the mandibular shape was studied. The results obtained were as follows:
Various shapes of the mandible were obtained by changing the application of the amount of force, direction and the site of the attachment of the masticatory muscles.