Measurement of lingual and palatine somatosensory evoked potentials

Objective: A technique is presented for generating and recording lingual and palatine nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). Methods: Pairs of thin, stainless steel disk electrodes were mounted onto mandibular or maxillary acrylic splints, similar to orthodontic retainers. Mandibular splint electrodes were oriented to contact the under surface of the tongue along the course of the right and left lingual nerves and maxillary splint electrodes were oriented to contact the hard palate bilaterally along the course of the palatine nerves. SEP recording electrodes were placed on the scalp 1 cm posterior to C5 and C6 (C5' and C6', respectively) using the combinatorial nomenclature of the International 10-20 system. Two reference electrode locations, Fz and C5' or C6', over the cortical hemisphere opposite that of the recording electrode, were used. Results: Right and left lingual and palatine nerve SEPs were recorded from five normal adults. SEP latencies were similar to the N13 and P18 cortical peak latencies recorded in previous studies of trigeminal nerve branches to the lips regardless of reference electrode position. Conclusions: A more precise method of stimulating the intraoral lingual and palatine nerves was accomplished using dental splints. SEPs were easier to obtain using a contralateral cortex reference electrode location. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.