A clinical study of patients with mandibular dysfunction. II. The effect of full-coverage occlusal splint therapy

Abstract

The clinical effect of full coverage occlusal splint during 13 weeks insertion was investigated in 30 mandibular dysfunction patients with two or more symptoms of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain, TMJ sounds and limitation of mandibular movement followed by no organic change in the TMJ, who were reported in part 1 of this study.A remarkable effect of occlusal splint was obtained and 86.7% of the 30 patients were improved totally. Especially, the symptoms, TMJ pain and shoulder stiffness were much improved, but less effective was seen to buccal pain and temporal headache. The period of producing the effect of occlusal splint was different to each symptom, but no change was seen after 10 weeks in any symptoms.These results clearly show the effect of full coverage occlusal splint for mandibular dysfunction patients and useful suggestion of occlusal splint therapy to this disease was obtained.