Botulinum toxin treatment of temporomandibular joint pain in patients with bruxism: A prospective and randomized clinical study

Bruxism is a parafunctional habit, usually performed in sleep, by rhythmic and involuntary teeth being squeezed or squeaked. The most common methods of treatment are the use of occlusal splints.The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of occlusal splinting with botulinum toxin administration in the treatment of TMJ pain.For this purpose, 40 patients with bruxism were divided into two groups and one group was treated with occlusal splint and the other group received masseter muscle botulinum toxin injection. Then, the participants in both groups were evaluated in terms of pain, functional movement, and maximum bite force change at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine the differences between two independent groups. While Friedman test was used for differences between dependent groups, the Wilcoxon test was used for the differences between two repetitive measurements. Chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between categorical variables. Results: When pain was evaluated, both methods were effective in pain reduction, botulinum toxin injection was found to be less effective in reducing pain but no difference was found between the two methods. The maximum bite force decreased in the 2nd and 6th weeks and increased in the 3rd and 6th months in patients receiving botulinum toxin. In patients using occlusal splints, there was no change until the 3rd month and an increase was seen in the 6th month. In this study, it was observed that low dose BTX-A and occlusal splint use were effective in eliminating bruxism-related pain but not superior to each other.According to these results, low dose botulinum toxin can be considered as an alternative treatment in patients who cannot use occlusal splint for various reasons.