Comparing masticatory performance as measured by gummy jelly and color-changeable chewing gum in dentate subjects

Masticatory ability is an important aspect of stomatognathic function that affects the oral health-related quality of life in everyone. A practical way to objectively measure masticatory ability is to use color-changeable chewing gum and gummy jelly. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the masticatory ability measurements obtained with color-changeable chewing gum and gummy jelly. The subjects were fully dentate individuals (n = 10). Subjects' masticatory function was measured by asking them to masticate color-changeable chewing gum at 30, 45, and 60 strokes and gummy jelly at 10, 20, and 30 strokes. The measurement used a validated visual chart. Spearman correlation was used to analyze the data. A significant correlation (p < 0.05) was found between the measurement of 30 strokes of chewing gum and 20 strokes of gummy jelly (r = 0.643, p = 0.045), between 45 strokes of gum and 10 strokes of jelly (r = 0.701, p = 0.007), between 60 strokes of gum and 10 strokes of jelly (r = 0.756, p = 0.011), and between 60 strokes of gum and 30 strokes of jelly (r = 0.684, p = 0.029). It was suggested that two methods for measuring masticatory performance could be comparable by considering the number of chewing cycles: 60 strokes for color-changeable chewing gum and 30 strokes for gummy jelly.