Occlusal features and masticatory musclesactivity. A review of electromyographic studies

Since there is no consensus on the association between occlusion and temporomandibular disorders (TMDs), the aim of the present paper was to conduct a review of electromyographic studies, in order to asses the relationship between various occlusal features and masticatory muscles' activity. MATERIAL AND METHODS. An exhaustive MEDLINE computer search was performed to identify all experimental studies present in the English literature describing the relationship between the electromyographyc evaluation of patients and their occlusal morphology. RESULTS. The search methodology provided a total of 102 abstracts and from these 11 full reports were required as full text. Of the 11 articles selected, 8 studied the variation of the muscular activity as a consequence of the experimental introduction of occlusal disturbances whereas the remaining three studies estimated the electrical muscular characteristics without any artificial alteration of the occlusal morphology. CONCLUSION. The results obtained seem to suggest that occlusal features can affect the electrical signals recordings of masticatory muscles. Further researches are strongly requested to realize if this altered muscular activity can turns in the occurrence of TMDs.