Impact of Stress and Trait Anxiety on the Sensory and Jaw Motor Responses to a Tonic Orofacial Nociceptive Stimulus.

Aims: To investigate how trait anxiety and stress jointly affect the sensory and jaw motor responses to a tonic orofacial nociceptive stimulus.

Methods: Orthodontic separators were placed between the first molars in 45 adults with low (n = 14), intermediate (n = 17), and high (n = 14) trait anxiety. Tooth pain, occlusal discomfort, tooth clenching (as a jaw motor behavior), and situational stress were measured three times a day for 5 days using visual analog scales.

Effects of trait anxiety, somatosensory amplification, and facial pain on self-reported oral behaviors.

Objectives: Oral behaviors are activities, like gum chewing, teeth clenching, and biting of objects, that go beyond normal functioning demands and contribute to the onset of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Somatosensory amplification refers to the tendency to experience somatic sensations as intense, noxious, and disturbing and is related to bodily hypervigilance. Clinical experience suggests that individuals with bodily hypervigilance also present with occlusal hypervigilance and continuously check their occlusion.