• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2006

Botulinum toxin injection has been used in the masticatory muscle area as an effective treatment method of various movement disorders and facial contouring, but its effects on jaw function have not been evaluated. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of botulinum toxin type A injection into the masseter muscle on the EMG activities of masseter and anterior temporal muscles, and the limitation of jaw function. Fourteen healthy subjects were recruited. Five subjects were injected with 80 units of botulinum toxin type A(Dysport, Ipsen, Wrexham, UK) into each side of masseter muscle, and nine subjects were injected with saline into the same site as the botulinum toxin group. The surface EMG activities at maximum voluntary contraction of masseter and anterior temporal muscles were recorded before, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks after injection. Presence of jaw functional limitations in each subject was investigated using Korean version of Jaw Functional Limitation Scale(JFLS) questionnaire. The masseter muscle EMG was gradually decreased in the botulinum toxin group comparing with that of the control group(p<0.001), but the anterior temporal muscle EMG did not show significant changes. There was significant increases in the mastication (p<0.01), and global jaw limitation(p<0.05) subscales of JFLS at 1 week after injection, but no significant changes in the other subscales including opening, and verbal and emotional expression during the recording periods. Our results suggest that botulinum toxin injection into masseter muscle can affect modest limitation in mastication function at 1 week after injection but recovered to the baseline until 3 weeks after injection. The EMG activity of masseter muscle had been gradually decreased until 3 weeks after botulinum toxin injection but the anterior temporal muscle did not show any significant changes.