Shear Wave Elastography in Bruxism—Not Yet Ready for Clinical Routine
Cem Toker,
Justus Marquetand,
Judit Symmank,
Ebru Wahl,
Fabian Huettig,
Alexander Grimm,
Benedict Kleiser,
Collin Jacobs,
Christoph-Ludwig Hennig
Affiliations
Cem Toker
Department of Epileptology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Justus Marquetand
Department of Epileptology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Judit Symmank
Department of Orthodontics, University Hospital Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
Ebru Wahl
Department of Prosthodontics, University Clinic for Dentistry, Oral Medicine, and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Fabian Huettig
Department of Prosthodontics, University Clinic for Dentistry, Oral Medicine, and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Alexander Grimm
Department of Epileptology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Benedict Kleiser
Department of Epileptology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Collin Jacobs
Department of Orthodontics, University Hospital Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
Christoph-Ludwig Hennig
Department of Orthodontics, University Hospital Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
Ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) is an emerging modality for the estimation of stiffness, but it has not been studied in relation to common disorders with altered stiffness, such as bruxism, which affects almost one-third of adults. Because this condition could lead to an increased stiffness of masticatory muscles, we investigated SWE in bruxism according to a proof-of-principle and feasibility study with 10 patients with known bruxism and an age- and gender-matched control group. SWE of the left and right masseter muscles was estimated under three conditions: relaxed jaw, 50% of the subjective maximal bite force, and maximal jaw opening. Rejecting the null hypothesis, SWE was significantly increased during relaxed jaw (bruxism 1.92 m/s ± 0.44; controls 1.66 m/s ± 0.24), whereas for maximal mouth opening, the result was vice versa increased with 2.89 m/s ± 0.93 for bruxism patients compared with 3.53 m/s ± 0.95 in the healthy control, which could be due to limited jaw movement in chronic bruxism patients (bruxism 4.46 m/s ± 1.17; controls 5.23 m/s ± 0.43). We show that SWE in bruxism is feasible and could be of potential use for diagnostics and monitoring, though we also highlight important limitations and necessary methodological considerations for future studies.
