Oral health conditions have improved in younger populations, and tooth retention has increased among the elderly. Oral functions encompass mastication, swallowing, speech, and other related activities. Their maintenance and enhancement are regarded as a key indicator of oral health. Conventional methods for the assessment of oral functions, such as occlusal force measurement, electromyography, and gummy chewing tests, often lack accuracy and reproducibility. In addition, each oral function requires a different measurement device, which imposes a substantial burden on patients. To address these issues, we propose an approach to evaluate oral functions using oral-related audible sounds. In this study, to enable a comprehensive and efficient assessment, we collected several types of oral-related audible sounds, including occlusal sounds, speech sounds, tongue click sounds, and inhalation sounds with the same device. These signals were recorded from participants ranging from young adults to the elderly, accompanied by a questionnaire on eating habits and an oral health examination. These recorded signals were analyzed using signal processing methods and statistical techniques. The results demonstrate that oral functions can be assessed using these oral-related audible sounds, with the outcomes presented as visual representations and quantitative measures.
Hashida et al. (Wed,) studied this question.