Oral size perception of particles: Effect of size, type, viscosity and method

We investigated how different parameters affect oral size perception of small particles of SiO2 and polystyrene particles of varying sizes (2-230 mu m). Eighteen healthy subjects assessed the size of the particles by rubbing the sample between the tongue and the palate. The importance of size and type were studied by direct scaling and forced choice ranking and the results of the two methods were compared. To assess the relative importance of the tongue and the palate in oral size perception topical anesthesia was applied. The size and characteristics of particles are of importance for perception of particle size, where hard and irregular particles are perceived as larger than soft and round particles of similar size. The two methods of size perception, direct scaling and forced ranking produce very similar results on oral size perception. Topical anesthesia of either the tongue or the palate had no significant effect.