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Revista Portuguesa de Estomatologia,
Medicina Dentária e Cirurgia Maxilofacial

rev port estomatol med dent cir maxilofac. 2020;61(2):45-51

Original research

Effect of contingent electrical stimulation in sleep
bruxism – a randomized clinical trial

Maria Carlos Quaresma*, Pedro Crispim, Henrique Luis, Duarte Marques, João Caramês
Faculdade Medicina Dentária, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Objectives: A randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of a 4- and 8-week consecutive
Received 6 April 2020 use of contingent electrical stimulation on self-reported pain, jaw muscle activity, and
Accepted 13 July 2020 threshold intensity in teeth grinding during sleep, over 6 months.
Available online 11 September 2020 Methods: This randomized clinical trial studied 48 patients diagnosed with bruxism and
masticatory myofascial pain according to established methods. Patients were randomly
Keywords: allocated to Group I – 4-week contingent electrical stimulation (n=24), and Group II – 8-week
Biofeedback contingent electrical stimulation (n=24). The primary outcomes assessed were the number
Conditioning electrical stimulation of electromyographic events per hour of sleep, numerical rating scale pain scores, and
Grinding threshold intensity when grinding. Analysis of variance models was used to compare results
Pain at a 5% significance level.
Sleep bruxism Results: There was a statistically significant (p<0.05) decrease in pain level (-71.7% and
Temporal muscle -71.2%, respectively) and grinding mean intensity (-37.4% and -44.9%, respectively) at the
6-month follow-up for Group I. Contingent electrical stimulation reduced pain and the
threshold intensity of grinding at night in patients with masticatory myofascial pain with
definitive sleep bruxism, with a positive correlation (p<0.05) between the two primary
outcomes.
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that both the 4- and 8-week contingent elec-
trical stimulation protocols are effective in reducing patient symptoms related to sleep
bruxism. (Rev Port Estomatol Med Dent Cir Maxilofac. 2020;61(2):45-51)
© 2020 Sociedade Portuguesa de Estomatologia e Medicina Dentária.
Published by SPEMD. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mcrealdias@hotmail.com (Maria Carlos Real Dias Quaresma).
http://doi.org/10.24873/j.rpemd.2020.09.705
1646-2890/© 2020 Sociedade Portuguesa de Estomatologia e Medicina Dentária. Published by SPEMD.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).