Studies suggest an association between
orofacial pain, accompanying
temporomandibular disorders of myogenous origin, and
headache, especially its tension-type. The occlusal appliance
therapy is one of the options for the treatment of
orofacial pain due to masticatory muscles tenderness. The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of occlusal stabilization
splint therapy in myofascial
pain and
tension-type headache in patients with
sleep-disordered breathing. Forty three such patients were enrolled into the study group. The patients were treated with stabilization
occlusal splint of vertical thickness at vertical jaw separation, established individually for each patient using a cephalometric analysis. The intensity of
orofacial pain (numeric rating scale) and
headache (analog rating scale), frequency of
headache (%), and jaw qualitative function were assessed at baseline and after 2 and 6 months. Medians of
headache and
orofacial pain intensity were reduced after 6 months of treatment compared with baseline: 6.0 vs. 2.0 (p < 0.0001) and 6.0 vs. 1.0 (p < 0.0001), respectively.
Pain decreased below 3 score points in 61.8 % of the patients with
headache (p = 0.23) and in 85.3 % of patients with
orofacial pain (p < 0.0001). Overall, the improvement in both signs and symptoms of
orofacial pain was observed 81.4 % of patients after using occlusal stabilization
splint for 6 months. We conclude that occlusal stabilization
splint was effective in reducing painful symptoms of
temporomandibular disorders of myogenous origin, a frequent feature of
sleep disordered breathing.