[Bite Force Evaluation In Young Children]

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

Table of Content

LITERATURE REVIEW4

Individual Bite Force Levels4

Standard Clinical Dental Examination6

Differences In Maximum Molar Bite Forces8

Multivariate Factors11

Posterior Functional Teeth14

Determination Of Bite Force Magnitude17

Muscle Efficiency19

Prostheses Supported By Implants With Longer Satisfaction21

Jaw Elevator During Registration Of The Vertical Dimension24

Chewing Efficiency25

Children With Dentures Rehabilitated31

Masticatory Efficiency, Cycle And Chewing Satisfaction34

Bite Force And Efficiency Of Chewing37

Intensity Of The Bite Force39

Threshold Of Pain44

Visual Analog Scales'46

Modern High Bite Forces Using Less-Powerful Jaw Muscles49

CONCLUSION57

Bite Force Evaluation In Young Children

LITERATURE REVIEW

Individual Bite Force Levels

Determination of individual bite force levels has been widely used in dentistry in order to understand muscle activity and mandibular movements during mastication1 and masticatory performance, to study the influence of physiological factors on changes in occlusal forces, and for investigations on the biomechanics of prosthetic devices. Very few contemporary studies appear to have been undertaken that focus on young children with primary dentitions and those available tend to focus on small sample groups and include a significant number of children in primary dentitions who have either temporomandibular disorders or malocclusion. The results and conclusions reached in these studies cannot therefore be deemed comparative, certainly to children with predominantly primary healthy dentitions. Similarly, whereas much effort has been made to analyse interdependencies between bite force and a number of diverse variables such as craniofacial dimensions and head posture, chewing performance, clenching strength, and masticatory muscle thickness and occlusal contacts10 there still remains a need to more fully understand bite forces in very young children with healthy primary dentitions and appreciate the dynamic interplay of a range of influencing variables.

Factors influencing bite force measurements of bite force are prone to variations in experimental methods, including instrumentation design, the attitude and approach taken by the researcher, the degree of cooperation of the child children in primary dentition the position within the dental arch the bite force measurements are taken, head position and the extent of the vertical separation of the teeth and jaws when accommodating the measurement device. A systematic and extensive search of the evidence based literature reveals numerous attempts to relate occlusal forces to many other independent variables. Age, gender, the size, thickness and activity of the masticatory muscles, dental occlusion, the number of teeth in occlusal contact, the number of teeth present, stages of dental eruption, condition of dentition, facial morphology, temporomandibular joint and arch form and pain are just some of the individual variations that have been found to influence the magnitude of the bite force; however, not all of these factors are independent; for example, as individuals increase in age, they increase in body size with concomitant increase in muscle mass and strength16 along with changes in dentition, increased occlusal contacts and near occlusal contacts and hence their ability to apply larger bite forces.

This study was approved by the local research ethics committee and University ethics ...