The rehabilitation of the edentulous patients is a great concern to dentists. Many studies have mentioned the mastication ability decrease of this type of patients. More recent studies have defined the mastication ability as: satisfaction level (SL), capacity (MC), efficiency (ME) and chewing performance (CP). This study was designed with the aim to compare the mastication ability of edentulous and dentulous patients: 10 edentulous patients rehabilitated with complete dentures of the Universidade do Sagrado Coração – Bauru and 10 dentulous patients varying from 41- 64 years old participated. For the test of the ME, the patients chewed almonds until they felt that they were ready to be swallowed and also in a period of 10, 20 and 40 seconds. The content was collected and placed in a sieve system, using sieves with openings of different diameters, andM the ME rated as excellent, good, regular, bad and terrible through a pre-established classification. For the test of CP a food simulator was used, the patient being counseled to perform 40 chewi n g c y cles, using the same sieve system. The capacity was valued from data furnished by the patients as well as the satisfaction lev e l , through a questionnaire. The dentulous patients presented 92.5 % of ME, 97.5% of MP, 100% of MC and 99.5% of SL, wh e reas the edentulous patients presented 25 % of ME, 17.5% of CP, 57.86% of MC and 67% of SL. The patients that wear complete denture presentd lower ch ewing capabilities than the dentulous patients.

KEY WORDS: total prosthesis; edentulous mouth; mastication