## 2 Materials and Methods
An example is represented in Figure 8.
* Frequency (bps) is the number of masticatory acts per second expressed in bps or bytes per second. Figure 6: Skin detersion of the temporalis and masseeter muscle area; (**a,b**) Palpation of the temporalis and masseeter muscle region; (**c–e**), TMJoint® electrodes placement on masseeter and temporalis muscle; (**d–f**), front and side view (**g,h**). Figure 7: Volunteer performing MVC interposing cotton rolls. * Modmed (measured in percentage between right and left cycles, %) is the distance from the center of the graph and the center of the ellipse of the right and left chewing cycles. (ModmedR and ModmedL, of the right and left chewing cycles.) * TA IMPACT (%) is an index of the work done by the anterior temporal muscles during the test. (TAIR and TAIL, of the right and left chewing cycles.) * MM IMPACT (%) It is an index of the work done by the masseter muscles during the test. (MMIR and MMIL, of the right and left chewing cycles.) Chewing graphs extracted by the Modjaw(r) device were:  
* CS: Condylar slopes during protrusion-retrusion movements (degree), named CSL and CSR for the left and right side, respectively. * BA: Bennet Angle during lateral movements (degree), named BAL and BAR for the left and right side, respectively. * MW: Masticatory Width on the masticatory interincisival graph (mm), named WR and WL for the right and left side, respectively (Figure 9a). * MH: Masticatory Height on the masticatory interincisival graph (mm), named HR and HL for the right and left side, respectively (Figure 9b). * MA: Masticatory Angle on the masticatory interincisival graph (degree), named MAR and MAL for the right and left side, respectively (Figure 9c). Figure 8: Representation of the SMI parameter: the red ellipse represents the left chewing cycle. The blue ellipse is the right one. SMI represents the amount of symmetry between the two cycles, which in this case is only 33%. The masticatory angle, with the vertex located at the lower interincisal point, can be described as the angle formed by the mandibular movements during mastication. In this configuration, the vertex of the angle coincides with the interincisal point (i.e., the interincisal point is located at the level of the lower central incisors and is used to mark the center of mastication and mandibular trajectories during functional movements.) while the sides of the angle represent the mandibular trajectories during the opening and closing phases of the mouth during unilateral chewing. The masticatory angle on the graphs was measured using the ruler and goniometer provided by the TWIM software, as shown in Figure 2:0  
In practice, this angle allows for the study of the dynamics of mastication, including the symmetry or asymmetry of movements, the smoothness of the chewing cycle, and potential dysfunctions or deviations from a \"normal\" chewing cycle. Then, to express the angular measurement as a linear measurement, the difference between the right and left masticatory angles was calculated, and a percentage value of \(\frac{MAR}{MAL}\times 100\). (The lesser divided by the greater multiplied by 100) was calculated. This variable was called angular percentage value \(\frac{MAR}{MAL}\times 100\). The sample size of the present study was calculated with an a priori power analysis performed on the basis of a pilot study with preliminary data obtained from the first 10 subjects of the present study. On this preliminary sample a correlation of r = \(-0.59\) was found for SMI% that was considered as a primary outcome. A sample size a priori estimation conducted on the basis of previous references [19; 20] showed that in order to achieve a power of 80% with an alpha of 0.05 on the primary outcome, a minimum sample of 20 subjects was necessary. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics included the mean and standard deviation of all the variables for the whole sample.