Heavy metals and pain in the dysfunctional patient

Aims. The aim of this research is to verify the quality and quantity of heavy metals (HM) of dental origin in TMD patients. Methods. A population of 100 subject was studied and divided in two homogeneous groups: Study Group (SG) and Control Group (CG). Organism heavy metals were tested by a spot sampling method in which the first urine of the day, through Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), were analyzed. The results obtained were compared with reference values (RV) of Italian people. Descriptive statistical analysis and student's t-test has been applied (statistical significance for p > 0.05). Results. The SG presented the absolute highest levels of HM compared to the CG (p=0.787). As regards the relation between pain and HM, the subjects that refer “severe/very severe” values of pain present the highest levels of HM in urines. Conclusions. The obtained results seem to highlight a possible direct proportionality between the level of pain the increase of the concentration of heavy metals in all the examined groups and subgroups.