Influence of the aging on the tongue function and tongue shape, and the rlationship to the eating

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Principal articulator of not only speech and swallowing, but also masticatory system, that helps to prepare the food bolus. Positions and movements of tongue affect the denture stability. The significant function of tongue was reported in the Journal "Quintessence International". Dynamic measurement of tongue shape was developed using an ultrasonic and CCD camera systems. The system was consisted of 3.5 MHz transducer of which beam scans the sector area of 90 degrees angle along dorsum at 30 times a second and a detector. To obtain the relative position of the probe to the head, markets attached to the probe and glasses were detected using CCD camera simultaneously during the ultrasonic measurement. The palate was impressed by a dental impression material and the casts are poured. A palatal prosthesis was fabricated. Both CCD camera image and tongue image signals were imposed in an image signal using audio-visual mixer and the signal was digitized by a computer. The tongue and palatal shapes at a desired time were superimposed with an image processing software after adjusting the movements of head and probe. The tongue shape to the palate was measured at rest position of occlusion and increase of vertical dimension. The anterior portion of tongue was coherent to the anterior palatal contour at rest position. The tongue was positioned to the post-downward at the increase of vertical dimension with the decrease of curvance of tongue contour.The above system and findings were reported in the Journal of Japan Prosthodontic Society. As next step of this study influence of the aging on the change of tongue shape and tongue function will be investigated.