European journal of oral sciences
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In a controlled polysomnographic (PSG) study that we recently performed in our laboratory, we noticed that some patients with a chief complaint of sleep bruxism reported concomitant non-myofascial pain in their masticatory muscles. To study the influence of such pain on the pattern of bruxism motor activity, we re-assessed the 2nd out of 2 consecutive PSG and masseter electromyographic (EMG) recordings of 7 bruxers without pain and 6 bruxers with concomitant jaw muscle pain. ⋯ Although there were no significant differences between both subgroups of bruxers in the number of bruxism bursts per episode and the root-mean-squared EMG level per bruxism burst, bruxers with pain had 40% less bruxism episodes per hour of sleep. This suggests that non-myofascial jaw muscle pain decreases the number of initiations of bruxism episodes, but leaves their contents unaffected.