Imperfect mastication is a prevailing cause of indigestion.
In the mastication of food there are two movements of the lower jaw--the action by which the teeth are brought together, and the lateral motion.
The masticationand mixture of the saliva with the food are purely of a mechanical nature.
The formation of proper chyle demands appropriate mastication and chymification; while a healthy action of the lacteals requires that all the anterior stages of the digestive process be as perfect as possible.
MOUTH is an irregular cavity, which contains the instruments of masticationand the organs of taste.
Is there not more electricity generated during mastication on metal fillings than when the jaws are at rest?
The surfaces that are exposed to mastication undoubtedly will wear in time; but the filling does not become leaky if it has been properly packed and condensed, nor will the margins of the cavity be attacked by further decay on that account.
If thorough mastication were the rule, meat gluttons would be fewer, for when flesh is well chewed large quantities cause nausea.
Some of my friends report the same results, in spite of thorough mastication and moderation.
If properly prepared and eaten, they give little or no trouble, but they are generally cooked soft and the mastication is slighted.
Enthusiasm is apt to lead one astray, and even if thorough mastication will not do all that Mr. Fletcher believed, it is very important, and we owe Mr. Fletcher thanks for calling our attention to the subject forcibly.
If mastication is slighted they often ferment enough to produce considerable gas.
The sweet fruits require so much masticationthat only their juices should be fed until the child is old enough to masticate thoroughly.
When there is formation of much gas it is always necessary to reduce the food intake, and to give special attention to the mastication of all starch-containing aliments.
While the mastication is going on the saliva becomes mixed with the food.
With regard to chewing all food to a cream, most modern writers on dietetics, while acknowledging that this super-mastication is useful, maintain that it does not increase the value of the food.
Now did not the thorough mastication of that food increase the value of the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates?
In it are the teeth, which, in most of the mammalia, are used not only for the mastication of food, but as weapons of offence.
The organs of mastication in the adult consist of 32 distinct teeth, 16 in either jaw; being, in fact, a double set.
Mastication means a thorough breaking up of the food into the smallest particles, and insalivation means the mixing of the small particles with the saliva.
IV HOW TO EAT The importance of thorough masticationand insalivation cannot be overestimated.
Tethered by a halter to a tree, a partially harnessed bay mare suspended the process of mastication to fix us with a suspicious stare.
Mothers should be specially cautioned not to give nuts or nut candy of any kind to a child whose powers of mastication are imperfect, because the molar teeth are not erupted.
Instructions should be given concerning the proper mastication of food, and during treatment the frequent partaking of small quantities of liquid foods is recommended.
Thorough masticationand the slow partaking of small quantities at a time are imperative.
Deglutition and mastication were difficult, and there was persistent hiccough.
Difficulty in mastication is sometimes found, but much more frequently difficulty in deglutition is reported.
Undoubtedly much of the distress known as dyspepsia is due to too hasty meals with consequent lack of proper mastication of food.
The message of Mr. Horace Fletcher in bringing before us the need of proper mastication of food and the attendant evils of overeating is one which we cannot afford to ignore.
Thorough mastication takes time, and therefore one must not feel hurried at meals if the best results are to be secured.
Again, the quality of the food is of importance, some kinds of flesh being harder and more difficult of mastication than others.
The thorough mastication of the food is a very important precursor of digestion,[1] and this only too often fails, either owing to haste over meals or because of painful or deficient teeth.
Mr Fletcher would train every one to "chew" till the contents of the mouth were swallowed by reflex action without deliberate act; and he applies this theory of mastication and salivation also to drinks (except water).
Articulation and mastication are not so perfect as when the jaw was entire and sound; but the patient gradually becomes accustomed to the want, and these functions improve.
Mastication is impossible, the speech is altered, and indeed articulation may be said to be impracticable.
Meat is digested wholly in the stomach and does not require mastication (only enough to be swallowed), while dried or mature legumes require much mastication, owing to the carbohydrates they contain.
It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparations that it is rendered susceptible of mastication and digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices does not excite intolerable loathing, horror, and disgust.
But to this we reply, that such cakes as may be made (and such loaves even) require more mastication than the uncooked grains.
These require less mastication than those which are submitted to other processes; but they are more easy of digestion, and to some more palatable, and even more digestible.
Such practice in the use of the organs of mastication assists also in the later development of speech.
A strict observance of the diet hygiene outlined above, especially as concerns regularity of meals and mastication of food, will assist in the attainment of the first object.
It is to be noticed also that the gum habit differs from the tobacco habit in that the aromatic and elastic substance is masticated, while the tobacco never is, and that the mastication leads to nothing except more mastication.
Some have regarded it as in obedience to the feminine instinct for the cultivation of patience and self-denial --patience in a fruitless activity, and self-denial in the eternal act of mastication without swallowing.
In the animals in which the muscles of mastication are very highly developed, and especially in the carnivora, the osseous regions occupied by these muscles are more extensive and more deep than in the human species.
There is always some deformity, and more or less interference with mastication and speech.
Mastication is impossible, and the speech is indistinct.
There is acute pain in the region of the joint, the teeth on the affected side cannot be brought into apposition, so that mastication is interfered with, and the patient is conscious of something locking inside the joint.
The main trouble after severe alveolar fractures is that the upper teeth do not accurately oppose the lower ones, and mastication is thereby interfered with.
Speech and mastication are interfered with, the tongue feeling too large for the mouth; in time this disability is to a large extent overcome.
Gradually the carol-singers returned to their plates and glasses, and Mr. Hearty's mastication was once more heard in their midst.
Others heard it too, and the hum of conversation died away into silence, broken only by Mr. Hearty's mastication of a sausage-roll.
That due mastication of the food is essential to healthy digestion, which will be promoted or retarded in exact proportion as it approaches or falls short of this point, is a fact so generally known as scarcely to need comment.
If themastication of solid food, whether animal or vegetable, and a due admixture of saliva, be necessary for digestion, then solid food cannot be proper, when there is no power of mastication.
During masticationsaliva imbues every atom of the food, whereby the mass is throughout neutralized, or annulled.
The mastication dissolves the aliments mechanically into atoms, just as digestion will resolve them chemically into "infusoria.
This locked jaw is the most frequent instance of cataleptic spasm, because we are more inclined to exert the muscles subservient to mastication from their early obedience to violent efforts of volition.
