Frequency of Deglutition of Tongue Thrusters Compared to a Sample Population of Normal Swallowers

¹ University of Washington, School of Dentistry, Seattle, Washington

A technique has been described utilizing the mercury strain gauge to determine the rate of deglutition. This study included swallowing-frequency determinations both in normal and in variant swallowers. Our results have shown that these individuals who display the tongue-thrust habit swallow at a significantly slower rate (37.25) per hour than do the normal swallowers (61.4). In light of previous studies, which have indicated that during deglutition greater forces are produced upon the dentition by the tongue in abnormal swallowers than in controls, the total effect of this force must be re-evaluated in terms of the frequency of deglutition as it applied to each of these groups.