Occlusal Adjustment as Treatment for Chronic Orofacial Pain

Temporomandibular Joint Disorders Clinical Trial

Official title: Basis for an Etiological Diagnosis and Treatment of the Chronic TMD-pain: RCT Study

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether occlusal adjustment by selective grinding and/or occlusal addition is an effective treatment of chronic temporomandibular joint disorders.

Clinical Trial Description

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are very common disorders in daily dentistry and oral and maxillofacial practice. The key symptoms are jaw joint pain and limited mouth opening. Other than trauma, the causes remain unknown; consequently, there are no treatments based on specific etiologies. In our experience, patients can usually receive beneficial occlusal adjustments if these are carefully planned and performed in two steps: (1) elimination of premature contacts, which reduces loads in the temporomandibular joints, and (2) individualized remodeling of lateral anterior guidance to facilitate unilateral alternate chewing. The study will use stratified blocking randomization to blindly assign patients to the real or placebo treatment groups in order to evaluate the null hypothesis (H0) that "Occlusal adjustment of sufficient quality has no effect on chronic pain and/or limited mouth opening in TMD patients." ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Joint Diseases
• Orofacial Pain
• Temporomandibular Joint Disorders
• Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome

• NCT number: NCT00899717
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Santiago de Compostela
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Start date: May 2009
• Completion date: April 2010