Abstract: Objective　To analyze the possible function improvement after removal of inducing factors for unilateral mastication. Methods 　As the experimental group, 30 patients with unilateral mastication (male or female) were randomly selected by adopting the methods of combining clinical stomatology examination with inquiry, including 13 cases with left side chewing and 17 cases with right side chewing. The common inducing factors for unilateral mastication had been removed before the experiment. The absorbance value was tested and analyzed to compare masticatory efficiency under the circumstances of random chewing, left side and right side chewing respectively. Bilateral chewing people were randomly selected as the normal control (n=30, male or female). Results　There was significant difference in absorbance value between the experimental group and control group (P<0.01), while no significant difference was found between male and female cases in each group (P>0.05). In the experimental group, although there was no significant difference in absorbance value between random chewing and left side chewing for left side chewing people (P>0.05), each of them was higher than that of the right side chewing (P<0.05). Moreover, no significant difference was found between random chewing and right side chewing (P>0.05), but each of them was higher than left side chewing (P<0.05) for right side chewing people. Conclusions　After the removal of inducing factors for unilateral mastication, the masticatory efficiency of unilateral mastication cases is still lower than bilateral chewing group, suggesting that the conventional removal of inducing factors for unilateral mastication can not really achieve the purpose of restoring bilateral masticatory function, and a therapeutic intervention may be necessary as well.

Key words: Key words：　unilateral mastication, inducing factors, masticatory efficiency