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Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Dysfunction
and
Emotional Stress
Physiological effects of emotional stress on the body and its effects on the TMJ
Effects on the musculoskeletal system
Muscles
The full list of muscles pertaining to TMJ can be found in the Appendix B.
The effect of the emotional stress on the masticatory muscle tone is the best example of methodological limitations in relation to stress measurement. There are numbers of studies that show conflicting results in relation to whether stress causes increased TMJ muscle tone or not. However, when the stressor has a high personal relevance, there is a clear evidence of increased masticatory muscle activity as measured by surface electromyograms.(Ohrbach et al., 1998)
High personal relevance of stressor in the above study was achieved my imagery script based on an event in the subject’s own life, thus suggesting a great degree of emotional involvement and connection between objectively measured emotional stress and increased masticatory muscle activation.
Increased muscle tone is implicated in the effect of emotional stress on bones, fascias, vascular and visceral systems. This will be further explained in the following chapters.
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