Effects of Head Posture and Occlusal Splint on Swallowing Movement

두부자세 및 교합장치에 따른 연하운동의 변화

This study was performed to investigate the effects of head posture and occlusal splint on the vertical dimension in mandibular rest position and swallowing. Thirty health dental students ware selected lot this study and BioEGNⓡ(Bioresearch Inc., USA) was used for measuring interocclusal distance during rest - swallowing - rest - tapping movement. This swallowing movements were observed in both normal head posture(NHP) and forward head posture (FHP). Thickness of occlusal splint was about 2mm at posterior molar area and even tooth contact were achieved on light biting. The four mandibular positions at which interocclusal distance measured were swallowing position, after swallowing position in which interocclusal distance was maximum, rest position follows swallowing, and tapping position after rest. Changes of distance in each position were measured for three mandibular planes, that is, sagittal, frontal, and horizontal plane, respectively. The results obtained were as follows : 1. In normal head posture, the mandible was raised 1.03mm without splint, and 0.77mm with splint on swallowing, and there was no significant difference between the two. In horizontal plane, however, mandible was displaced more anteriorly in both swallowing position and tapping position with splint. 2. In forward head posture, the mandible was less raised with splint on swallowing, but features in horizontal plane were almost same as those in normal head posture. 3. In natural dentition, significant difference between NHP and FHP were observed in horizontal plane trajectory for swallowing and tapping position. But the difference for same positions were observed in frontal trajectory with splint. 4. Total amount of mandibular movement of two groups classified with sagittal interocclusal distance of swallowing position generally showed significant difference between the higher and the lower height group in head posture without splint. 5. Correlationship among total amount of mandibular movement for three mandibular planes were observed between sagittal plane and horizontal plane, and between sagittal plane and frontal plane in head posture without splint.