Utility of Vaccum Pressed Silicon Sheet as a Bite Raising Appliance in the Management of TMJ Dysfunction Syndrome.

Abstract

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) represent a group of painful conditions involving the muscles of mastication and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) that frequently encountered in general clinical practice. This study is designed to assess the utility of vacuum pressed silicon sheet as a bite raising appliance in the management of TMJ dysfunction syndrome. The patients for this study were selected from those with the chief complaint of TMJ disorder. Out of 200 patients, 104 patients were diagnosed with subluxation and 96 patients were diagnosed with internal derangement of temporomandibular joint. All the reported cases were managed conservatively with physiotherapy and muscle relaxant therapy for one week period and followed with silicon bite raising appliance over both the arches in the subsequent period. All the patients had pain relief within six months duration as graded over verbal analog scale. ANOVA scale was used for comparision of VAS scores. The use of vacuum pressed bite raising appliance in the management of TMJ disorder was found to be satisfactorily effective in alleviation of pain symptom in our study group.