Figure 7: The silent period can be triggered by interfering tooth contacts during gum chewing. The left pane (a) is an expanded view showing a partial silent period followed by a complete cessation of activity of all four muscles about 40 msonds later. The small arrow denotes a very slight tooth contact which is not sufficiently strong enough to create a full silent period. The large arrow indicates a stronger contact producing a full cessation of activity in all four muscles (for ~25 msonds). The right pane (b) demonstrates that in some patients with occlusion related masticatory dysfunction nearly every cycle includes a silent period