Assessing the Treatment Effects of Occlusal Adjustment to Pain of Temporomandibular Disorders

Objective: To investigate the effect of occlusal adjustment on patients of temporomandibular disorders(TMD) with oral-facial pain.Methods: Thirty-six patients were included in the study.Eighteen of them were treated by occlusal adjustment.The others served as controls.Dividing the two groups into course of diseases,acute group and chronic group.Before and after treating,occlusal contact points,pain parameters and chewing movement tracings of all patients were recorded.Results: After treating,the number of occlusal contact points in treatment group raised(P0.05);the current pain had to change in acute group,and mean pain in the last twenty-four hours(24h) descended significantly.Two kinds of pain parameters also descended significantly.The occlusal adjustment didn't influence the stability and shape of the chewing movement tracings(P0.05).While in control group,the number of occlusal contact points didn't change.At the time of fellow-up exam,there was a significant decrease in scores of pain intensity in acute group,but no decrease in chronic group.Conclusion: Occlusal adjustment was effective to TMD pain.