Conclusions
TMJ pain, TMD, muscle pain, TMD symptoms
TMJ PAIN, TMJ
Due to the large variation in diagnostic criteria and splint types found in clinical studies, there is a lack of standardized treatment regimens, which is one of the reasons for the low evidence of occlusal splint therapy in TMD patients. The results of our study indicate that occlusal splint treatment in general can alleviate pain-related TMD symptoms and lead to an improvement in QoL. Based on our results, the symptoms TMJ sounds, TMJ pain with palpation and muscle pain with palpation seem to subside over time regardless of the type of MMR registration method used. AQU-based occlusal splints led to a greater alleviation of TMJ pain with maximum opening than CPG-based occlusal splints. In neither group, the occlusal splint treatment was able to correct lateral mandible deviation or improve restricted jaw opening. The treatment of some TMD symptoms seemed to depend on the duration of occlusal splint therapy. In conclusion, the Aqualizer seems to be a suitable tool for recording MMR in TMD patients, however, the effect of AQU-based splints did not exceed that of CPG-based splints in this study. Therefore, the Aqualizer can be considered an alternative to CPG in cases, where operator-guided registration techniques are not possible.