A new aid in temporomandibular joint disorders' therapy: the universal neuromuscular immediate relaxing appliance

Among the various treatment options currently indicated to deal with temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) an important role is played by occlusal devices, which can be used in an individualized or universal manner. A new universal occlusal appliance device was designed and patented at the Clinical Gnathology Service of the Sapienza University of Rome. To assess its validity and efficacy a preliminary study on a sample of 50 patients was carried out. Patients were selected from a cohort of 158 according to the RDC-TMD (SPEC) criteria and randomly assigned to two groups, the patient group (PG), treated with the device, and a control group (CG) without any treatment. The two groups were evaluated by comparing four VAS pain scores: muscular, migraine, cervical and temporomandibular joint (TMJ). On the whole, all VAS pain scores in the PG showed a marked and statistically significant improvement after treatment, decreasing to about 50-80 %, while the control group remained stable. The best improvement was achieved in muscular pain. Age did not affect neither the initial scores, nor the pain response to the treatment. The pain scores tended to slightly increase with time of application (one, two or three months), but this trend was significant only for cervical pain. Overall the results are favourable to the application of this new occlusion device. However, the data should be considered preliminary and require further verification in time and on a higher sample of patients of both sexes.