{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Development of a tool for monitoring the jaw-opening pace and preliminary comparison the pace between young and old ages.
{Author}: Chen YH;Shieh WY;Huang YF;Cheng HK;Wang CM;
{Journal}: J Formos Med Assoc
{Volume}: 123
{Issue}: 9
{Year}: 2024 Sep 6
{Factor}: 3.871
{DOI}: 10.1016/j.jfma.2024.01.009
{Abstract}: <B>BACKGROUND: </B>Studies have demonstrated that high-speed jaw-opening exercises are effective in improving swallowing function. However, there has been no objective tool available for monitoring jaw-opening pace. This study aimed to develop an objective tool for monitoring and validating jaw-opening pace and compare it between young and old ages from different age groups.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>A load cell plug-in jaw pad connected to an automatic recording and analysis system was used to record jaw-opening motions for offline analysis. We recruited 58 healthy volunteers from different age groups (20-39 y/o; 40-59y/o; 60-79y/o). During a 2-min recording session, each participant was instructed to fully open and close their jaw as quickly as possible while wearing a sensor. Bland-Altman plot, paired t-test and Pearson's correlation test were used to compare the number of jaw-opening motions between manual counting and automatic software analysis. The number of jaw-opening motions during the 2-min recording was compared between the three age groups.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>Automated analysis of jaw-opening pace was efficient and equally comparable with the traditional manual counting method across the three age groups. A declining trend in jaw-opening pace among the old age group was found but with no statistically significant difference.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>A jaw-opening motion monitoring tool with reliable automatic pace analysis software was validated in young and old ages The jaw-opening pace demonstrated a tendency to decline with age.