THE EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION OF THE CONVECTIVE CHEWING TEST IN PATIENTS WITH COMPLETE DENTITION

Abstract

Abstract. Introduction. Chewing efficiency is an important criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of dental treatment, however, existing chewing tests are rarely used in dental practice, which is explained by the complexity and laboriousness of their results evaluation. On the background of the active growth of mHealth a new convective chewing test with an automated evaluation system was developed. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the convective chewing test, as well as to determine the reference values of the chewing efficiency of patients with complete dentition using the convective chewing test. Materials and methods. 32 patients with complete dentition and orthognathic occlusion were examined. Patients' chewing performance was determined using a convective chewing test with an automated scoring system and the M. Shimmel chewing test. Analysis of the effectiveness of the convective chewing test with an automated analysis system was carried out by evaluating the correlation between the results of the developed method and the previously known chewing test. The data obtained were processed using descriptive statistics methods. Results and discussion. As a result of the study, a reference range of chewing efficiency values was determined, which ranged from 86.1% to 92.1% for the convective chewing test, and from 0.053 c.u. up to 0.079 c.u. for the M. Shimmel chewing test. Spearman's correlation coefficient was -0.56. Conclusion. The effectiveness of the convective chewing test and the automated system for its evaluation have been confirmed. The obtained reference values of chewing efficiency can be used as a control when evaluating the results of dental treatment of patients using a convective chewing test.