A review of masticatory ability and efficiency.

Masticatory function can be assessed by chewing tests and questionnaires or personal interviews. Whereas the chewing tests allow the assessment of masticatory efficiency with some objectivity, questionnaires help evaluate a person's subjective responses about chewing ability. Epidemiologic studies indicate a subjective decrease in chewing ability with increasing degree of tooth loss, a trend that was confirmed in the literature. Of interest was that the subjective measures of masticatory ability are often overrated when compared with the functional tests. Masticatory function is a patient factor rather than a parameter that prosthetic treatment can qualify. It depends on a variety of personal and subjective factors that can hardly be influenced by the practitioner. This article describes and discusses scientific sociophysiologic and biomedical approaches to evaluating masticatory function.