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Effects of muscle fatigue induced by low-level clenching on experimental muscle pain and resting jaw muscle activity: gender differences

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of jaw-muscle fatigue evoked by low-level tooth-clenching followed by the induction of experimental muscle pain by injection of glutamate on the perception of fatigue and pain and on the resting electromyographic (EMG) activity. In addition, the role of gender on these interactions was studied. The EMG activities of bilateral masseter (MAL, MAR) and temporalis (TAL, TAR) muscles in 11 healthy young women and 12 men were measured before (Baseline) and after tooth-clenching for 30 min at 10% of maximal force (Post1), after subsequent glutamate (Glu) or isotonic saline (Iso) injection into the MAL following the tooth-clenching (Post2) and 60 min after tooth-clenching (Post3). The intensities of fatigue, fatigue-related muscle pain and headache-like symptoms were scored on 0–10 cm visual analog scales (VAS). The glutamate-evoked pain was continuously scored on an electronic VAS. Sustained low-level tooth-clenching consistently produced fatigue sensation, fatigue-related muscle pain and headache-like symptoms in both genders with significantly higher fatigue VAS scores in men than in women, while the accompanying increase in the resting EMG activity appears higher in women than in men in the masseter muscles. In this study no gender differences were found for the perceived amount of experimental pain induced by glutamate injection. Additional increases of the resting EMG activity after injections occurred only in men in the injected masseter muscle and non-injected temporalis muscles. The present findings provide new information on the complex influence of gender on sensory-motor integration in the trigeminal system which may contribute to differences in susceptibility to develop musculoskeletal pain problems.

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Acknowledgements

The authors do appreciate Dr. Brian E. Cairns, The University of British Columbia, Canada for his valuable comments. The skillful help of Knud Larsen and the participation of volunteers are appreciated. This study was supported by a grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH) (1 R01 DE015420-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI), Laboratory for Human Experimental Pain Research, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7 D-3, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark

    Tetsurou Torisu, Kelun Wang, Peter Svensson & Lars Arendt-Nielsen

  2. Department of Clinical Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Peter Svensson

  3. Cluster of Oral Physiology, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Antoon De Laat

  4. Division of Removable Prosthodontics and Management of Oral Function, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

    Tetsurou Torisu & Hiroyuki Fujii

Authors
  1. Tetsurou Torisu
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  2. Kelun Wang
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  3. Peter Svensson
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  4. Antoon De Laat
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  5. Hiroyuki Fujii
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  6. Lars Arendt-Nielsen
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Correspondence to Lars Arendt-Nielsen.

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Torisu, T., Wang, K., Svensson, P. et al. Effects of muscle fatigue induced by low-level clenching on experimental muscle pain and resting jaw muscle activity: gender differences. Exp Brain Res 174, 566–574 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0497-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0497-4

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