Observations on the main occluding area in mastication

Abstract

In order to locate the area which crushes hard food, subjects were asked to clench freely a temporary sotpping as a test food placed on their tongues. As a clenching area in dental arch for each subject was constant through five trials, the area was named the main occluding area in mastication.
From observations on the main occluding area of 24 subjects, the following conclusions were obtained:
1. Most subjects had the main occluding area which was the same as occluding area between the lingual cusp inner incline of maxillary first molar and the buccal cusp inner incline of mandibular first molar.
2. The main occluding area coincided with the area which had the closest occlusal relation at intercuspal position.
3. The main occluding area changed to aproximal tooth or the other area bucco-lingually on the same tooth depending on changing occlusal relation at intercuspal position.