Engelen Lina, Fontijn-Tekamp Anneke, van der Bilt Andries
Department of Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery, Prosthodontics and Special Dental Care, Oral Physiology Group, University Medical Center, Str. 4.129, P.O. Box 85060, 3508 AB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Arch Oral Biol. 2005 Aug;50(8):739-46. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2005.01.004. Epub 2005 Feb 26.
The urge to swallow food could be triggered by a threshold level in both food particle size and lubrication of the food bolus. Thus, both oral physiology and product characteristics may influence the swallowing threshold. We quantified the swallowing threshold in a group of 266 healthy adult subjects (age 42 +/- 12 years) by counting the number of chewing cycles needed to prepare food for swallowing. The influence of oral physiology on the swallowing threshold was determined by measuring salivary flow rate, maximum bite force and masticatory performance. We used about 10 cm(3) of bread, toast, melba toast, breakfast cake, peanuts and cheese to determine the influence on the swallowing threshold of various food characteristics, e.g. hardness, moisture and fat. Furthermore, we tested the effect of buttering the bread, toast, melba toast and breakfast cake on the swallowing threshold. Salivary flow rates were significantly and negatively correlated with the number of chewing cycles of melba toast and breakfast cake. Hence, subjects with more saliva needed less chewing cycles for these dry products. Maximum bite force and masticatory performance had an influence on the swallowing threshold for the hard products only (carrot and peanut). Although significant, the correlation coefficients were less than 0.28. Thus, the oral physiology parameters explained less than 10% of the variance in the swallowing threshold. We found significantly different numbers of chewing cycles for the various foods, ranging from 17 for cake to 63 for carrot. Hard and dry products needed more chewing cycles until swallowing. Buttering the food significantly reduced the number of chewing cycles needed before swallowing. This was especially true for the dry products cake, melba toast and toast. Hard and dry products require more chewing cycles and longer time in mouth until swallowing for sufficient breakdown to take place and for enough saliva to be added to form a coherent bolus safe for swallowing. In spite of this, more saliva, higher maximum bite force and better masticatory performance were only weakly correlated with a smaller number of chewing cycles. Butter enhanced lubrication and bolus formation of dry products, thus reducing the number of chewing cycles until swallowing. In conclusion, product characteristics and to a lesser extent oral physiology significantly affect swallowing threshold.
吞咽食物的冲动可能由食物颗粒大小和食团润滑程度的阈值水平触发。因此，口腔生理学和产品特性都可能影响吞咽阈值。我们通过计算为吞咽准备食物所需的咀嚼周期数，对一组266名健康成年受试者（年龄42±12岁）的吞咽阈值进行了量化。通过测量唾液流速、最大咬合力和咀嚼性能来确定口腔生理学对吞咽阈值的影响。我们使用约10立方厘米的面包、烤面包片、梅尔巴吐司、早餐蛋糕、花生和奶酪来确定各种食物特性（如硬度、水分和脂肪）对吞咽阈值的影响。此外，我们测试了在面包、烤面包片、梅尔巴吐司和早餐蛋糕上涂抹黄油对吞咽阈值的影响。唾液流速与梅尔巴吐司和早餐蛋糕的咀嚼周期数呈显著负相关。因此，唾液较多的受试者对于这些干燥产品所需的咀嚼周期较少。最大咬合力和咀嚼性能仅对硬质产品（胡萝卜和花生）的吞咽阈值有影响。尽管具有显著性，但相关系数小于0.28。因此，口腔生理学参数对吞咽阈值变化的解释不到10%。我们发现不同食物的咀嚼周期数有显著差异，从蛋糕的17次到胡萝卜的63次不等。硬质和干燥的产品在吞咽前需要更多的咀嚼周期。给食物涂抹黄油显著减少了吞咽前所需的咀嚼周期数。对于干燥产品蛋糕、梅尔巴吐司和烤面包片来说尤其如此。硬质和干燥的产品在吞咽前需要更多的咀嚼周期和在口腔中停留更长时间，以便充分分解并添加足够的唾液以形成适合吞咽的连贯食团。尽管如此，更多的唾液、更高的最大咬合力和更好的咀嚼性能与较少的咀嚼周期仅呈弱相关。黄油增强了干燥产品的润滑和食团形成，从而减少了吞咽前的咀嚼周期数。总之，产品特性以及在较小程度上口腔生理学显著影响吞咽阈值。
