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Masticatory muscle stretching for the management of sleep bruxism: A randomised controlled trial
Author(s) -
Gouw Simone,
Wijer Anton,
Kalaykova Stanimira I.,
Creugers Nico H.J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of oral rehabilitation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2842
pISSN - 0305-182X
DOI - 10.1111/joor.12694
Subject(s) - sleep bruxism , masticatory force , medicine , polysomnography , randomized controlled trial , sleep (system call) , physical therapy , masseter muscle , electromyography , dentistry , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anesthesia , apnea , computer science , operating system
Summary Background Sleep bruxism is a phenomenon associated with masticatory muscle hyperactivity. While stretching of limb and trunk muscles has been extensively studied for musculoskeletal disorders, little is known about the effectiveness of stretching of masticatory muscles in the management of bruxism. Objective The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of stretching of the masticatory muscles for sleep bruxism. Methods Twenty four pain‐free individuals with sleep bruxism were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. Both groups were given sleep hygiene advice and the intervention group additionally received muscle‐stretching exercises for 10 days. Primary outcome measures, bruxism bursts and episodes per hour of sleep, were measured by ambulant polysomnography. Secondary outcome measures were among others pain‐free active maximum mouth opening ( MMO ) and masseter pressure pain threshold ( PPT ). Results The number of bruxism episodes per hour of sleep increased more in the intervention group than in the control group (by 1.1 episodes, P = 0.066), as did the number of bruxism bursts per hour of sleep (by 8.6 bursts, P = 0.049). MMO and PPT increased significantly more in the intervention group (by 3.2 mm, P = 0.020; and by 1.0 kg/cm 2 , P = 0.036, respectively). Conclusion Static stretching of the masticatory muscles resulted in a minor increase in sleep bruxism episodes (not significant) and bursts (significant). It also led to a significant increase in MMO and PPT . Therefore, masticatory muscle stretching was not effective in reducing sleep bruxism in the absence of pain and/or dysfunction.