Comparative Assessment of the Influence of Aging and Presence of Teeth on the Oral Haptic Perception and Its Relevant Clinical Application in Oral Diagnostic/Therapeutic Procedures

Abstract

Oral haptic perception (OHP) is a potential clinical tool for diagnostic/therapeutic  procedures in medical (endoscopy/intubation) and dental (oral appliances/prosthesis) science. This study was aimed  to evaluate the influence of age and tooth loss on OHP scores and the response time (RT) alongwith the impact of denture wearing on the same. The study was conducted on 120 adult subjects, distributed in two groups, Group A [Dentulous (D)] (n=40) and Group B [Edentulous (E)] (n=80). Each group was further divided into subgroups [Group A1 (20-30 yrs), Group A2 (60-70 yrs), Group B1 (No dentures), B2 (maxillary denture), B3 (mandibular denture) and B4 (both dentures)]. Six acrylic specimens (circle, semicircle, ellipse, square, rectangle and triangle) in two different sizes were identified by the patient using oral cavity to quantify an  OHP score. Unpaired “t” test was used to compare the means while one way ANOVA (F-test) judged the significance of the different p values. The OHP was found to decrease with age [46.05(20-30 yrs) vs 42.2 (60-70 yrs)] and tooth loss [42.2 (D) vs 24.95 (E) while RT was found to increase as one ages [66.6 (20-30 yrs) vs 277.45 (60-70 yrs) and with loss of tooth [277.45 (D) vs 372.4 (E)]. While the differences for the OHP scores were statistically significant at different levels of p values, the scores of RT were significantly different for only group. OHP scores improved with wearing of both dentures (33.7) as compared to remaining edentulous (24.95). Sensory capabilities of the oral cavity vary with individuals, age and the presence of teeth/dentures. Determination of OHP can predict difficulties to be encountered in diagnostic/therapeutic  procedures like endoscopy/intubation/ denture wearing.