Oral Fine Motor Control of Teeth Treated with Endodontic Microsurgery: A Single-Blinded Case-control Study

Abstract

Introduction: Periodontal mechanoreceptors (PMRs) are refined neural receptors present in abundance at the root apex and have a pivotal role in oral fine motor control. This case-control study aimed to evaluate the oral fine motor control of teeth treated with endodontic microsurgery (EMS) in comparison with the control teeth using a standardized behavioral biting task. Methods: Fourteen eligible participants performed 5 trials of an oral fine motor control task that involved holding and splitting half of a peanut positioned on a force transducer with their EMS treated tooth and its contralateral control incisor tooth (28 teeth in total). The outcome variables were the mean food holding force, intra- and intertrial variability of the holding force, food splitting force, splitting duration, and the frequency of the stepwise splitting phase. The data were analyzed with parametric and nonparametric tests. Results: The results showed no statistically significant differences in the holding force, inter- and intratrial variability of the holding force, splitting force, or splitting duration between the teeth treated with EMS and the control (P >.05). However, there was a significantly higher frequency of stepwise ramp increase during the splitting phase with EMS treated teeth compared with the control (48% and 37%, respectively; P