A Study on the Therapeutic Effects of Occlusal Appliance on Temporomandibular Disorders

측두하악장애환자의 교합안정장치 치료효과에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of occlusal stabilization splint on the clinical symptoms and the condylar movement in patients with Temporomandibular Disorders(TMD). For the study, 15 TMD patients treated with stabilization splint and followed up were selected. The age of them was from 18 to 65 years and the mean period of treatment was 2.9 months. The author examined signs and symptoms of TMD according to Dr. Friction's evaluation from and recorded the condylar paths with Denar pantronic before and after splint therapy. The obtained results were as follows : 1. On the first visit, 11 patients(73.3%) showed muscle tenderness on palpation and the frequency was lateral pterygoid, masseter, medial pterygoid, temporalis, sternocleidomastoideus in the order named. 2. Occlusal stabilization splint was more effective in pain relief(100%) than in other dysfunction improvement(85.7%) 3. The amount of maximum opening increased from 37.1㎜ to 42.2㎜, but those of protrusion and laterotrusion changed little. 4. Pan. PRI scores decreased from 32.9 to 21.8, which meant improved reproducibility of mandibular border movements, and the group with sever dysfunction category showed more decrease in score than the group with moderate or slight dysfunction category.