Oral Physiology and Mastication

The oral cavity is the place where the food is manipulated and disrupted by teeth during mastication to form a food bolus ready for swallowing. The human masticatory system is an integrated functional unit with a highly complex organisation, and its functioning depends on a set of organs and tissues whose activities are entirely linked to each other. When a solid food is placed in the mouth, it is immediately subjected to several concomitant operations: Mastication is central, helped by the action of saliva, tongue movements and inputs from other oral elements which ensure the sensorimotor control of these combined functions. During this set of combined and dynamic activities, many sensory attributes, pertaining to texture, aroma and taste, can be perceived and in turn sensory information is relayed to the central nervous system, which can adjust the motor command. This chapter covers a description of the main oral elements and their activity during the food oral processing dealing with mastication and formation of a food bolus. Mastication is obviously the main oral activity in food oral processing but it is helped in this task by the action of the other oral elements, all working in coordination and not as unitary operations.