A comparison of the methods used to determine chewing preference

For much human activity there exists a 'lateral preference', that is a tendency to use one side of the body or the other; with respect to the hands for example, the vast majority of individuals have a preference for either the right or left hand. Most experts agree that mastication is no exception in that there is a 'preferred chewing side' but the determination of this preference is somewhat complex. This research analyses the mastication of 60 healthy subjects by means of preferred chewing side or 'PCS' tests, the Kazazoglu test, and kinesiography (KGF). While some authors consider the PCS to be the side which first comes into contact with the food we prefer to define it as the side on which the majority of the cycles analysed and registered take place. The objective of this research was to analyse the relationship that might exist between the two different methods used for determining a lateral chewing preference. Although there was no statistically significant agreement between the two techniques, both reflected the fact that there was a marked preference for the right hand side.