Effect of repeated bouts of bracing and clenching jaw activities on musculoskeletal symptoms in healthy young individuals.

Authors

Yoshihiro Iwata, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Simple Futarmal Kothari, Takashi Iida, Anupriyadarshini Devendran, Yuki Ishii, Yuichiro Yamakawa, Osamu Komiyama, Peter Svensson

Published in

Journal of prosthodontic research. Oct 23, 2026. Epub Oct 23, 2026.

Abstract

To investigate, in a controlled environment, the effects of repetitive standardized jaw-loading activities associated with awake bruxism over a 4-day period on self-reported painful and non-painful symptoms and electromyographic (EMG) activity.
Thirty healthy individuals participated in the study. On each of the four days, the participants performed nine 5-min bouts of bracing or clenching jaw motor tasks, with 1 min of rest between bouts. Assessments included 0-10 visual analog scale (VAS) ratings of the perceived levels of painful and non-painful symptoms (pain, unpleasantness, soreness, fatigue, tension, stiffness, mental stress, and headache). Numeric rating scale (0-100) scores for muscle sensitivity assessment, pain rating index scores of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, maximum mouth opening, and EMG of the masseter were also measured.
VAS scores for fatigue were significantly higher after both motor tasks than before and 24 h after the exercises each day (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the VAS scores for fatigue were significantly higher than those for pain and headache (P < 0.05) on all days for both exercises except for pain after day 4 for the clenching task (P = 0.196).
The results suggest that experimental bracing and clenching of the jaw muscles evoked increased levels of fatigue after standardized exercises, whereas pain was one of the least-scored symptoms. Overall, these findings indicate remarkable resilience of the normal stomatognathic system to strenuous jaw muscle activity, suggesting that the development of longer-lasting pain may require additional risk factors beyond repetitive jaw loading alone.

PMID:
42927900
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Oct 2026.

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