As yet, there are still no evidence-based clinical diagnostic and management guidelines for ambulatory single-channel EMG devices, like the BUTLER® GrindCare® (GrindCare), that are used in patients with sleep bruxism. Therefore, a consensus meeting was organized with GrindCare developers, researchers, and academic and non-academic clinicians experienced with the use of ambulatory EMG devices. The aim of the meeting was to discuss and develop recommendations for clinical guidelines for GrindCare usage, based on the existing clinical and research experience of the consensus meeting’s participants. As an important outcome of the consensus meeting, clinical guidelines were proposed in which an initial 2-week baseline phase with the device in its inactive (non-stimulus) mode for habituation and assessment of the number of jaw-muscle activities is followed by a 4-week active phase with contingent electrical stimuli suppressing the jaw-muscle activities. As to avoid the commonly reported reduction of sensitivity to the stimuli, a 2-week inactive phase is subsequently installed, followed by a repetition of active and inactive phases until a lasting reduction of the number of jaw-muscle activities and/or associated complaints has been achieved. This proposal has the characteristics of a single-patient clinical trial. From a research point of view, adoption of this approach by large numbers of GrindCare users creates a great opportunity to recruit relatively large numbers of study participants that follow the same protocol.

到目前为止，对于用于睡眠磨牙症患者的动态单通道 EMG 器械，如BUTLER®GrindCare® (GrindCare)，仍没有循证临床诊断和管理指南。因此，与 GrindCare 开发人员、研究人员以及具有使用动态 EMG 器械经验的学术和非学术临床医生组织了共识会议。会议的目的是根据共识会议参与者现有的临床和研究经验，讨论和制定 GrindCare 使用临床指南的建议。作为共识会议的重要结果，提出了临床指南，在该指南中，最初的2周基线阶段，设备处于非活动（非刺激）模式，用于适应和评估下颌-肌肉活动的数量，随后是4周的活跃期，有条件的电刺激抑制下颌-肌肉活动。为了避免通常报告的对刺激的敏感性降低，随后设置2周的不活动期，然后重复活动期和不活动期，直到实现下颌肌肉活动和/或相关主诉的持续减少。该提案具有单患者临床试验的特征。从研究的角度来看，大量 GrindCare 用户采用这种方法为招募相对大量遵循相同方案的研究参与者创造了巨大的机会。