Authors: Hidetaka Nakamura, Kazuyoshi Hashimoto, Kei Takahashi, Hideto Matsuda
Introduction: Chewing well is linked to preventing obesity and lowering the risk of type-2 diabetes and the importance of mastication is recognized. In the field of dentistry, there have been numerous reports on the relationship between bite and tolerance to exercise. However due to the lack of reports relating to mastication and tolerance to exercise we aim to clarify the relationship between mastication and tolerance to exercise and bone density.
Method: 23 healthy young females (21.3 ± 0.4 years old) without a history of exercise had their habitual non-masticatory side determined by finding the main occluding area using stopping. The facial skin temperature at rest on the habitual non-masticatory side was measured using thermography and the area was multiplied by that temperature for each 1℃ and totaled. Each participant was placed in either the high or low chewing efficiency group depending on the average of that value. Tolerance to exercise was determined by a bicycle ergometer and exhaled gas analysis while ultrasound was used to determine bone density, and the 2 groups were compared.
Results: The bone density, peak oxygen consumption per 1kg of body weight and minute volume of ventilation from 5 minutes before the end of exercising to end of exercising were each considerably small in the low chewing efficiency group compared to the high chewing efficiency group.
Conclusion: The facial skin temperature was measured using thermography to give masticatory muscle activity when at rest as chewing efficiency and was confirmed to have a relationship with exercise tolerance. Chewing efficiency can be determined using thermography. Also, a relationship was confirmed between chewing efficiency and bone density, and since there is a relationship between bone density and heart pump functionality through mastication in eating habits and exercise habits, we reconfirmed the importance of mastication.
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