A preliminary investigation of reproducibility of EMG signals during daytime masticatory muscle activity using a portable EMG logging device

Continuous parafunctional masseter muscle activities (MMA) that are associated with daytime bruxism have been suspected to be one of the main pathoetiology for orofacial pain. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term stability and reliability of daytime EMG measurement of MMA using a portable device (Actiwave; CamNtech Ltd). Daytime masseter muscle EMG of five subjects were recorded for four days in their normal living environment. There was no significant time dependent effect on EMG amplitude during recording period. A total of 4923 MMA events were detected in all analysis periods (129.4 h) and classified into phasic type (1209 events, 24.6%), tonic type (1759 events, 37.0%), and mixed type (1377 events, 28.0%). There was no significant difference in the number of occurrence among three MMA types. With respect to the duration and peak MMA, there were significant differences among three MMA types. The result of this study indicated that Actiwave can be used to measure MMA events during daytime with high stability and reliability under the normal living environment and it was suspected that parafunctional habits may be associated with the occurrence patterns of MMA during daytime.