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  • Title: Electromyographic evidence of reduced muscle activity when ULF-TENS is applied to the Vth and VIIth cranial nerves.
    Author: Kamyszek G, Ketcham R, Garcia R, Radke J.
    Journal: Cranio; 2001 Jul; 19(3):162-8. PubMed ID: 11482827.
    Abstract:
    The object of this study was to determine if the resting muscle activity of TMD patients with measured hyperactivity (EMGave > 2.0 microvolts) could be reduced by the application of ULF-TENS (Ultra-Low-Frequency-Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation) [(BioTENS) BioResearch, Inc. Milwaukee, WI]. Twenty-nine patients with resting muscle hyperactivity and ten without resting muscle hyperactivity were selected from a series of 124 consecutively diagnosed TMD patients. Electromyographic records were taken bilaterally (with the mandible at rest) from the superficial masseter, anterior temporalis, anterior digastric, and posterior temporalis muscles before and after the application of ULF-TENS. The EMG data were averaged. For the 85 muscles that were found initially to exceed the usual cutoff of 2.0 microvolts, means and standard deviations were calculated. The "before TENS" levels were: mean = 3.353 +/- 1.44227 and the "after TENS" values were: mean = 1.844 +/- 0.92421. Using a student t-test, we found the difference between the before and after levels significant (p < .0005). Additionally, means and standard deviations were calculated for each muscle (Ta, Mm, etc.) separately and also found to be significantly different (before Vs after TENS). In these "hyperactive" patients, the nonhyperactive muscles were also pooled, the means calculated before (mean = 1.21 +/- 0.456) and after (mean = 1.00 +/- 0.345) TENS and found to be significantly different (p < 0.01). For the ten patients exhibiting no muscle exceeding the 2.0 microvolt cutoff (mean = 1.08 +/- 0.415), no significant change (in levels) was observed after ULF-TENS (mean = 0.96 +/- 0.359; p > 0.88); however, when we calculated the "paired difference," we found a significant reduction, albeit very slight, in these patients' muscles, too. We conclude that ULF-TENS has an activity-reducing effect on the resting EMG levels of both hyperactive and relaxed muscles. It also appears that while the > 2.0 microvolt cutoff is useful for identifying patients that are hyperactive at rest, it does not identify complete relaxation of masticatory muscles.
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