[Study of the characteristics of the food bolus in elderly subjects with complete dentures].

Many studies have shown that wearing of complete dentures impairs masticatory function. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of complete denture wearing and ageing on masticatory performance. Masticatory performance was assessed by a granulometric method on 110 subjects divided into 3 groups according to dental state and age. The results show edentulous subjects have a masticatory performance worse than their congeneric of the same age. Indeed, the median of the distribution of the size of the particles is more important at the carriers of prostheses than at the toothed old subjects (P < 0.0001). On the other hand the extent of the distribution does not vary significantly between these 2 groups of subjects. The parameters of the masticatory performance do not vary in a statistically significant way between the old subjects and the young controls. There is thus no significant effect of the age on the parameters of the performance masticatory.