The development and proliferation of the mandibular condyle can be altered by changes in the biomechanical environment of the temporomandibular joint. The biomechanical loads were varied by feeding diets of different consistencies. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether changes of masticatory forces by feeding a soft diet can alter the trabecular bone morphology of the growing mouse mandibular condyle, by means of micro-computed tomography. Thirty-six female, 21 days old, C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into two groups. Mice in the hard-diet control group were fed standard hard rodent pellets for 8 weeks. The soft-diet group mice were given soft ground diets for 8 weeks and their lower incisors were shortened by cutting with a wire cutter twice a week to reduce incision. After 8 weeks all animals were killed after they were weighed. Following sacrifice, the right mandibular condyle was removed. High spatial resolution tomography was done with a Skyscan Micro-CT 1072. Cross-sections were scanned and three-dimensional images were reconstructed from 2D sections. Morphometric and nonmetric parameters such as bone volume(BV), bone surface(BS), total volume(TV), bone volume fraction(BV/TV), surface to volume ratio(BS/BV), trabecular thickness(Tb. Th.), structure model index(SMI) and degree of anisotropy(DA) were directly determined by means of the software package at the micro-CT system. From directly determined indices the trabecular number(Tb. N.) and trabecular separation(Tb. Sp.) were calculated according to parallel plate model of Parfitt et al.. After micro-tomographic imaging, the samples were decalcified, dehydrated, embedded and sectioned for histological observation. The results were as follow: 1. The bone volume fraction, trabecular thickness(Tb. Th.) and trabecular number(Tb. N.) were significantly decreased in the soft-diet group compared with that of the control group (p<0.05). 2. The trabecular separation(Tb. Sp.) was significantly increased in the soft-diet group(p<0.05). 3. There was no significant differences in the surface to volume ratio(BS/BV), structure model index(SMI) and degree of anisotropy(DA) between the soft-diet group and hard-diet control group (p>0.05). 4. Histological sections showed that the thickness of the proliferative layer and total cartilage thickness were significantly reduced in the soft-diet group.