Aspects of mastication with bridges on osseointegrated implants.

Sixteen edentulous patients were examined before and 2 months after rehabilitation with fixed bridges supported by fixtures in the mandible. Data were collected regarding bite force, chewing efficiency, chewing movements and self-estimated chewing ability. The results after rehabilitation indicated that patients with an obvious improvement of chewing efficiency showed a greater increase of the mean bite force parameters than patients with unchanged chewing efficiency. However, it was not possible to find any definite pattern of differences between the groups of patients, based on the chewing efficiency index after rehabilitation. Furthermore, after rehabilitation the test group revealed a positive correlation between the duration of the occlusion phase and bite force values, negative correlations between bite force "as when chewing" and closing velocity and between duration of the occlusion phase and opening mandibular velocity and displacement, respectively.