Oral-facial pain and pain in the masticatory muscles are frequently symptoms of TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorders. The masseter is a powerful muscle whose job is to lift and retract the jaw and is generally the most affected by pain and spasms. A study group took into consideration a group of 8 women who, upon palpation of the masseter, presented a tenderness of 6 on the VAS scale. On these women, transverse and circular massages were performed in the area covered by the masseter (cheek), monitoring the electromyographic activity of the muscle. The result obtained was an immediate and significant decrease on the pain scale. The electromyographic activity, however, gave good variations 3 hours after the massage.
Other studies in which manual work was then added at the mandibular/masticatory level have highlighted that, probably, the relapses between one session and another depend precisely on this latency between symptomatic remission and the electromyographic activity which neutralises, in 'immediately, part of the work applied.