Development of a novel statistical model for mandibular kinematics

The purpose of this study was to establish a new statistical method for the analysis of masticatory function. The subjects were patients with anterior crossbite who had received orthognathic surgery. Chewing movement was measured by means of an opto-electronic motion-analysis system. This movement was compared with similar movement in control patients. We sought to develop a statistical model to predict the population average curves of the chewing cycles. In this study, the mandibular incisor point was used as a target point of jaw movement. The combination of a spline function with random coefficients and self-modeling regression (SEMOR) extended to three dimensions was used to predict population average curves for each group. Unquestionably, significant differences were present in some areas. The present modeling method that uses the combination of a spline function and SEMOR is one of the best ways to eliminate subjective estimation with regard to predicting representative chewing cycles.