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BACKGROUND. Patients often seek consultation with dentists for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). The objectives of this article were to describe the methods of a large prospective cohort study of painful TMD management, practitioners’ and patients’ characteristics, and practitioners’ initial treatment recommendations conducted by The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (the “network”). METHODS. Participating dentists recruited into this study treated patients seeking treatment for painful TMDs. The authors developed self-report instruments based on well-accepted instruments. The authors collected demographics, biopsychosocial characteristics, TMD symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, treatment adherence, and painful TMDs and jaw function outcomes through 6 months. RESULTS. Participating dentists were predominately White (76.8%) and male (62.2%), had a mean age of 52 years, and were general practitioners (73.5%) with 23.8% having completed an orofacial pain residency. Of the 1,901 patients with painful TMDs recruited, the predominant demographics were White (84.3%) and female (83.3%). Patients’ mean age was 44 years, 88.8% self-reported good to excellent health, and 85.9% had education beyond high school. Eighty-two percent had pain or stiffness of the jaw on awakening, and 40.3% had low-intensity pain. The most frequent diagnoses were myalgia (72.4%) and headache attributed to TMDs (51.0%). Self-care instruction (89.4%), intraoral appliances (75.4%), and medications (57.6%) were recommended frequently. CONCLUSIONS. The characteristics of this TMD cohort include those typical of US patients with painful TMDs. Network practitioners typically managed TMDs using conservative treatments. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS. This study provides credible data regarding painful TMDs and TMD management provided by network practitioners across the United States. Knowledge acquired of treatment recommendations and patient reports may support future research and improve dental school curricula.

The impact of comorbidities in fibromyalgia (FM) and temporomandibular disorders (TMD) have been well documented, but whether TMD sub-diagnoses myalgia (MYA) and myofascial pain with referral (MFP) differ regarding comorbidity is unclear. We aimed to elucidate this by studying the presence and associations of comorbidities in FM, MFP and MYA. An extended version of the Diagnostic Criteria for TMD axis II questionnaire was used to examine demographics, pain and comorbidities in 81 patients with FM, 80 with MYA, and 81 with MFP. Patients with MFP and FM reported a higher percentage of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, perceived stress, and insomnia compared to MYA. Patients with FM had more IBS, depression, and somatic symptom disorder versus MFP. After adjusting for confounding variables, participants with anxiety, somatic symptoms disorder, pain catastrophizing, and perceived stress, as well as a greater number of comorbidities, were more likely to have MFP than MYA, whereas FM participants were more associated with IBS, somatic symptoms and insomnia compared to MFP. The number of comorbidities was significantly associated with widespread pain but not pain duration, body mass index or being on sick leave. In conclusion, patients with MFP were more similar to those with FM regarding comorbidity and should be differentiated from MYA in clinical settings and pain management.

This study tested a jaw support device for patients receiving dental care while suffering from temporomandibular joint pain. This crossover randomized trial used 31 subjects with jaw pain. Subjects underwent 2 consecutive dental scaling sessions of 30 minutes each. For each subject, the device was used for 1 of the sessions. Subjects completed questionnaires regarding jaw pain and jaw fatigue before and after each session. Multivariate analyses were performed to assess the device's effectiveness in preventing the aggravation of pain and fatigue during dental treatment. Statistically significant differences were found for jaw pain (P = 0.001), and fatigue (P = 0.04), indicating the effectiveness of the device. Based on the results, supporting the mandible of patients with temporomandibular disorders during dental treatments may prevent further pain.

Gender is the biggest risk factor in the development of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and orofacial pain. Gender differences in pain thresholds, temporal summation, pain expectations, and somatic awareness exist in patients with chronic TMD or orofacial pain. There are gender differences in pharmacokenetics and pharmacodynamics of medications used to treat pain. A better understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to the increased incidence and persistence of chronic pain in females is needed. Future research will elucidate the sex effects on factors that protect against developing pain or prevent debilitating pain. Gender-based treatments for TMD and orofacial pain treatment will evolve from the translational research stimulated by this knowledge.

To conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have assessed the efficacy of intraoral orthopedic appliances to reduce pain in patients with temporomandibular disorders affecting muscle and joint (TMJD) compared to subjects receiving placebo control, no treatment, or other treatments.A search strategy of MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, the Cochrane CENTRAL Register, and manual search identified all English language publications of RCTs for intraoral appliance treatment of TMJD pain during the years of January 1966 to March 2006. Two additional studies from 2006 were added during the review process. Selection criteria included RCTs assessing the efficacy of hard and soft stabilization appliances, anterior positioning appliances, anterior bite appliances, and other appliance types for TMJD pain. Pain relief outcome measures were used in the meta-analyses, and the QUORUM criteria for data abstraction were used. A quality analysis of the methods of each RCT was conducted using the CONSORT criteria. The review findings were expressed both as a qualitative review and, where possible, as a mathematical synthesis using meta-analysis of results.A total of 47 publications citing 44 RCTs with 2,218 subjects were included. Ten RCTs were included in two meta-analyses. In the first meta-analysis of seven studies with 385 patients, a hard stabilization appliance was found to improve TMJD pain compared to non-occluding appliance. The overall odds ratio (OR) of 2.46 was statistically significant (P = .001), with a 95% confidence interval of 1.56 to 3.67. In the second meta-analysis of three studies including 216 patients, a hard stabilization appliance was found to improve TMJD pain compared to no-treatment controls. The overall OR of 2.15 was positive but not statistically significant, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.80 to 5.75. The quality (0 to 1) of the studies was moderate, with a mean of 55% of quality criteria being met, suggesting some susceptibility to systematic bias may have existed.Hard stabilization appliances, when adjusted properly, have good evidence of modest efficacy in the treatment of TMJD pain compared to non-occluding appliances and no treatment. Other types of appliances, including soft stabilization appliances, anterior positioning appliances, and anterior bite appliances, have some RCT evidence of efficacy in reducing TMJD pain. However, the potential for adverse events with these appliances is higher and suggests the need for close monitoring in their use.

Many elderly patients in long-term care hospitals cannot adequately brush their dentures because of disease, dementia and poor dexterity. Such inadequate cleaning may allow for the multiplication of Candida spp. and bacteria, which could serve as reservoirs for disseminating infections.To assess the efficacy of 3 denture cleansers in reducing the number of microorganisms on dentures in a hospitalized geriatric population.Three brands of cleanser (Denture Brite, Polident and Efferdent) were compared; water was used as the control. Microbiological samples were obtained before and after 3 one-week periods of cleanser use; these samples were taken by a microbiologist blinded to the assigned treatment. In the statistical analysis, the ranks of the differences between the before-treatment and after-treatment scores of each regimen were compared by means of the general linear model. In addition, the efficacy of each cleanser in reducing accumulation of plaque, stain and food was assessed.The rank of the differences in the number of colony-forming units (CFUs) of Candida spp. before and after one week of use of Denture Brite (p = 0.04) and Polident (p = 0.01), was significantly greater than that of the control group, but there was no difference between Efferdent use and control (p = 0.10). No significant differences in reduction of Streptococcus mutans were observed between Denture Brite (p = 0.13) or Polident (p = 0.12) and the control group, whereas dentures cleaned with Efferdent exhibited significantly greater reduction in Streptococcus mutans (p = 0.02) than dentures cleaned with water. Over all study periods, there were no significant differences among the cleansers in reduction of Candida spp. or Streptococcus mutans. Dentures cleaned with Denture Brite, Polident or Efferdent appeared to have similar reductions in the level of plaque, stain and food, and all had substantially greater reductions than dentures cleaned with water only. The significant difference in the rank of the reduction in Candida spp. CFUs (p = 0.005) was related to the variance between study periods (p = 0.01) and the variance between subjects (p = 0.008).The use of denture cleansers significantly reduced the number of microorganisms on dentures in a hospitalized geriatric population.

To evaluate the quality of methods used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of treatments for management of pain and dysfunction associated with temporomandibular muscle and joint disorders (TMJD) and to discuss the implications for future RCTs.A systematic review was made of RCTs that were implemented from 1966 through March 2006, to evaluate six types of treatments for TMJD: orthopedic appliances, occlusal therapy, physical medicine modalities, pharmacologic therapy, cognitive-behavioral and psychological therapy, and temporomandibular joint surgery. A quality assessment of 210 published RCTs assessing the internal and external validity of these RCTs was conducted using the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) criteria adapted to the methods of the studies.Independent assessments by raters demonstrated consistency with a mean intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.63 (95% confidence interval). The mean percent of criteria met was 58%, with only 10% of the RCTs meeting the four most important criteria.Much of the evidence base for TMJD treatments may be susceptible to systematic bias and most past studies should be interpreted with caution. However, a scatter plot of RCT quality versus year of publication shows improvement in RCT quality over time, suggesting that future studies may continue to improve methods that minimize bias.