1994 Volume 57 Issue 6 Pages 498-
Since mastication depends on the physical properties of foods, it is very important to know how food texture changes with chewing. We assessed how the texture of gum changed during chewing. Eleven normal subjects and 6 with masticatory muscle disorders were asked to chew gum and the texture (hardness, cohesiveness, stickiness and gumminess) was measured by a texturometer at 10, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 240 seconds. The cohesiveness and the stickiness of the gum during chewing was similar for the two groups. The only difference was that the hardness and the gumminess of the gum was less for the normal subjects at 10 seconds. This suggests that special attention should be paid to the early stages of chewing.
