Masticación unilateral: rol en el desarrollo del sistema estomatognático / Unilateral mastication: role in stomatognatic development

Chewing one of the stomatognatic system main function. An adequate chewing is a positive stimulous for strutures growing and development and to maintain functional equilibrium. Ideally, chewing must be bilateral so structures of each side can develop in the same way. Generally, this ideal situations doesnït exist in all patients, and unilateral chewing is very common, if this kind of habit makes habitual, it could affect unfavorable the stomatognatic system function and morphogenesis. Main objetive of the present review is to investigate the actual state about unilateral chewing habit and to discuss the relative importance of it on the stomatognatic system development