Absence or weak correlation between chewing side preference and lateralities in primary, mixed and permanent dentition.

Objectives: To determine whether chewing side preference (CSP) is correlated to lateralities (handedness, footedness, eyedness and earedness) in primary, mixed and permanent dentitions.

Design: Three-hundred subjects were divided into 3 groups: Group 1--100 children 3-5 years old, primary dentition; Group 2--100 children 6-12 years old, mixed dentition; Group 3--100 subjects 18-47 years old, permanent dentition. CSP was determined using a method developed by Mc Donnell et al. Subjects were given a piece of gum and the position of the chewing gum was recorded 7 times as right or left. Subjects were classified as 'observed preferred chewing side' (OPCS) when they performed 5/7, 6/7 or 7/7 strokes on the same side. OPCS corresponded to the CSP. Laterality tests were performed for handedness, footedness, eyedness and earedness tasks. The Chi-square (χ(2)) and phi correlation (r) tests were used to investigate significant correlations between CSP and sidedness.

Results: There was a significant correlation between chewing and earedness (p=0.00), although there was weak positive correlation (r=0.30) for primary dentition. There were significant correlations between chewing and handedness (p=0.02; r=0.25) and chewing and footedness (p=0.02; r=0.26), however, there were weak positive correlations for mixed dentition; there were significant correlations between chewing and handedness (p=0.02; r=0.26); chewing and footedness (p=0.00; r=0.33) and chewing and earedness (p=0.01; r=0.29); however, there were weak positive correlations for permanent dentition.

Conclusion: It may be concluded that CSP can be significantly correlated with: earedness for primary dentition; handedness and footedness for mixed dentition; handedness, footedness and earedness for permanent dentition, but these are weak positive relationships. Future work on larger samples of left- and right-sided individuals is required to validate the findings.