Journal of Orofacial Pain

AIMS: To carry out a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate in patients with arthralgia of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) the effectiveness of TMJ lavage compared to nonsurgical treatment with regard to pain intensity and mandibular range of motion. METHODS: The electronic databases Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (1960-2012), PubMed÷Medline (1966-2012), and Embase (1966-2012) were systematically searched for relevant RCTs...

AIMS: To assess intraoral inter- and intraexaminer reliability of three qualitative measures of intraoral somatosensory function and to compare these measures between patients with atypical odontalgia (AO) and healthy controls. METHODS: Thirty-one AO patients and 47 healthy controls participated. Inter- and intraexaminer reliability was tested on a subgroup of 46 subjects (25 AO; 21 healthy). Sensitivity to touch, cold, and pinprick stimuli was evaluated on the painful gingival site and the corresponding contralateral site in AO patients, and bilaterally on the gingiva of the first maxillary premolars in controls...

AIMS: To examine the long-term prognosis of 46 previously examined atypical odontalgia (AO) patients. METHODS: In 2002 and 2009, AO patients completed validated instruments measuring pain characteristics (pain frequency and intensity), physical functioning (Graded Chronic Pain Severity, GCPS) and emotional functioning (Symptoms Checklist, SCL-90R). The main outcome was global improvement. Baseline data on quantitative somatosensory testing and responsiveness to lidocaine injection were available for a subgroup of patients...

AIMS: To test whether temporomandibular disorders (TMD) case-control differences in conditioned pain modulation (CPM) exist, using a mechanically evoked temporal summation (TS) model. METHODS: A series of 10 repetitive, mildly noxious, mechanical stimuli were applied to the fingers of 30 women with TMD, who had a primary diagnosis of masticatory myofascial pain, and 30 age-matched healthy women. The subjects rated the pain intensity caused by the 1st, 5th, and 10th stimuli in the series...

AIMS: To identify potential predictors of self-reported sleep bruxism (SB) within children's family and school environments. METHODS: A total of 65 primary school children (55.4% males, mean age 9.3 ± 1.9 years) were administered a 10-item questionnaire investigating the prevalence of self-reported SB as well as nine family and school-related potential bruxism predictors. Regression analyses were performed to assess the correlation between the potential predictors and SB...

AIMS: To investigate the hypothesis that the presence of transient morning masticatory muscle pain in young, healthy sleep bruxers (SBr) is associated with sex-related differences in sleep electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. METHODS: Data on morning masticatory muscle pain and sleep variables were obtained from visual analog scales and a second night of polysomnographic recordings. Nineteen normal control (CTRL) subjects were age- and sex-matched to 62 tooth-grinding SBr...

AIMS: To combine empirical evidence and expert opinion in a formal consensus method in order to develop a quality-assessment tool for experimental bruxism studies in systematic reviews. METHODS: Tool development comprised five steps: (1) preliminary decisions, (2) item generation, (3) face-validity assessment, (4) reliability and discriminitive validity assessment, and (5) instrument refinement. The kappa value and phi-coefficient were calculated to assess inter-observer reliability and discriminative ability, respectively...

AIMS: To perform a systematic review of the literature dealing with the prevalence of bruxism in adult populations. METHODS: A systematic search of the medical literature was performed to identify all peer-reviewed English-language papers dealing with the prevalence assessment of either awake or sleep bruxism at the general population level by the adoption of questionnaires, clinical assessments, and polysomnographic (PSG) or electromyographic (EMG) recordings. Quality assessment of the reviewed papers was performed according to the Methodological evaluation of Observational REsearch (MORE) checklist, which enables the identification of flaws in the external and internal validity...

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AIMS: To develop and test labeled magnitude (LM) scales that are sensitive to variations in pain associated with dentin hypersensitivity (DH). METHODS: Qualitative methods were used first to obtain words that describe the pain of DH. Magnitude estimation was then used to determine the position of these descriptive terms by relative magnitude along four vertical LM scales. To assess their DH, patients used the four LM scales following dentin stimulation with 4°C and 25°C water...

AIMS: To test the hypothesis that jaw muscles and specific neck muscles, ie, levator scapulae, trapezius, sternocleidomastoideus, and splenius capitis, co-contract at the different submaximum bite forces usually generated during jaw clenching and tooth grinding, and for different bite force directions. METHODS: Bite-force transducers that measured all three spatial force components were incorporated in 11 healthy subjects. The test persons developed feedback-controlled submaximum bite forces in a variety of bite-force directions...

AIMS: To conduct a systematic review of papers reporting the reliability and diagnostic validity of the joint vibration analysis (JVA) for diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). METHODS: A search of Pubmed identified English-language publications of the reliability and diagnostic validity of the JVA. Guidelines were adapted from applied STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD) to evaluate the publications. RESULTS: Fifteen publications were included in this review, each of which presented methodological limitations...

AIMS: To explore potential differences in characteristics of patients that might account for sex-specific differences in temporomandibular disorders (TMD). METHODS: A total of 502 patients presenting with TMD during 2000 to 2002 at the Outpatient Unit for Functional Disorders of the Medical University of Vienna underwent detailed evaluation of their medical history and assessment of clinical findings. The data obtained were assessed for sex-specific differences by analysis of variance and multiple regression...

AIMS: To evaluate the impact of smoking on pain severity, psychosocial impairment, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances in a large sample of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD). METHODS: A retrospective database review was performed on data from 3,251 patients with TMD, diagnosed according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD). Pain severity ratings and psychometric data regarding impairment, sleep disturbance, depression, and anxiety were obtained...

AIMS: To determine whether an intervention reduces oromotor activity and masticatory muscle pain in myofascial temporomandibular disorder (M/TMD) patients with high levels of masticatory muscle activity associated with sleep bruxism. METHODS: Fourteen women with M/TMD and prior polysomnographic evidence consistent with sleep bruxism participated in a 10-week single-group pre-test/ post-test mechanistic clinical trial. A 2-week period of baseline monitoring of individually biocalibrated electromyographic (EMG) events associated with sleep bruxism was followed by 6 weeks of EMG-event-contingent treatment via an innocuous electrical pulse to the skin overlying the temporalis muscle...

AIMS: To investigate the association among temporomandibular disorders (TMD), sleep bruxism, and primary headaches, assessing the risk of occurrence of primary headaches in patients with or without painful TMD and sleep bruxism. METHODS: The sample consisted of 301 individuals (253 women and 48 men) with ages varying from 18 to 76 years old (average age of 37.5 years). The Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders were used to classify TMD. Sleep bruxism was diagnosed by clinical criteria proposed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and primary headaches were diagnosed according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders-II...

AIMS: To build an understanding of the patient's experience and from this identify recurring themes that could form part of an item pool for further testing of persistent dentoalveolar pain disorder (PDAP). METHODS: Proven cases of PDAP were identified from a clinical database, and a purposive maximum variation sample was drawn. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the sample by a single trained interviewer. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

AIMS: To test the reliability and validity of a novel rat-holding device designed to be used in conjunction with the plantar test apparatus for studying nocifensive behavioral responses in an established model of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pathology. METHODS: Thirty-five young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Withdrawal latencies in response to infrared 40 heat stimulation of the submandibular region in naïve animals (n = 4) and animals injected with saline or complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) in the TMJ (n > 9) were measured over a 2-week time period...

AIMS: To study the effect of estrogen deficiency and altered temporomandibular joint loading on the histomorphology of condylar cartilage and on the expression of types II and X collagen and matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3). METHODS: Thirty-six female rats were divided into four groups: ovariectomized rats on a normal diet, nonovariectomized control rats on a normal diet, ovariectomized rats on a soft diet, and nonovariectomized control rats on a soft diet. Ovariectomy was performed at the age of 60 days...