Resumen

SANCHEZ AYALA, Alfonso  y  DELGADO COTRINA, Leyla. Estado oclusal y rendimiento masticatorio. Acta odontol. venez [online]. 2006, vol.44, n.2, pp.176-183. ISSN 0001-6365.

The aim of this study was to assess masticatory performance through occlusal state. One hundred subjects with general health were evaluated. The masticatory performance was evaluated through the degree of crushing of pills of silicone and sieving test. The oclusal state was measured through the accounting of occlusal anterior and posterior pairs, and turned to occlusal units, assigning an aggregate value to each type of occlusal pair. The results were evaluated through the tests of Kruskal Wallis, U-Mann Whitney, Spearman, and stepwise multiple regression. There were statistically significant differences between the groups of occlusal pairs and units with respect to the masticatory performance (p<.001).  The masticatory performance presented very hard correlation with the occlusal pairs (+.930) and occlusal units (+.919); considerable with the posterior occlusal pairs (+.877), molar pairs (+.835) and premolar pairs (+.796); and moderate with the anterior pairs (+.757) and with the age (- 679). Under the conditions of this work, those subjects with less number of occlusal pairs and units presented less masticatory performance. The valuation of the occlusal pairs as occlusal units offers one better description of the masticatory potential of the teeth according to the masticatory performance obtained.

Palabras clave : Occlusal state; mastication; sieving; masticatory performance.