Tooth tapping ability of young and elderly males and females.

Summary The ability to perform high frequency tooth tapping movements was studied in young dentulous, elderly dentulous and elderly edentulous subjects of both sexes as a possible test of the overall efficiency of the masticatory motor apparatus and related structures. Tapping frequency was measured during a test period of 90 s by counting the number of taps per 5 s intervals. It was found that observed values of tapping frequency could be fitted to an exponential equation with a high degree of fit for 90% of the young subjects and for 60% of the elderly subjects. The values of the remaining elderly subjects were best fitted to straight lines. The elderly subjects could thus be regarded as belonging to two different populations which were differently affected by advanced age and loss of teeth regarding their tooth tapping ability. Young dentulous subjects had the highest starting frequency (6·1 Hz) followed by elderly dentulous (5·5 Hz) and elderly edentulous subjects (4·9 Hz). The lower limits were 4·6 Hz for young dentulous subjects, 4·1 Hz for elderly dentulous and 3·7 Hz for elderly edentulous subjects. The average group means pointed all in the same direction that increased age and loss of teeth change the functional ability by deteriorating it.