Effects of occlusal splint therapy in addition to physical therapy on pain in patients affected by myogenous temporomandibular disorders: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of occlusal splint therapy in addition to physical therapy in improving pain in patients affected by myogenous temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Methods: In this pilot trial, myofascial pain patients were randomly allocated into experimental group (education, physical therapy, and occlusal splint - PT+OS) and control group (education and physical therapy - PT). The primary outcome was the TMD pain intensity. All outcomes were assessed at baseline (T0), at the end of the physical therapy (T1), after 6 months from the end of the physical therapy (T2). Results: Twenty-seven subjects (7 male and 20 females, mean aged 35.81 ± 16.57 years) were enrolled and allocated into two groups: 14 patients in the PT+OS group and 13 patients in the PT group. The RM ANOVA showed statistically significant differences between groups from T0 to T2 in favor of the PT+OS group in terms of TMD pain (p = .033), Neck Disability Index (NDI) (p = .025), and EuroQol-Visual Analogue Scale (p = .039). Conclusion: Findings from the present study demonstrated that pain, NDI, and health-related quality of life improved in both groups after therapy, but only in the experimental group these outcomes improved significantly further after 6-months follow-up. Thus, our results showed that adding occlusal splint therapy to the physical therapy may produce higher positive effects in patients affected by myogenous TMD. Further studies with a larger sample size should be carried out to confirm our results.