Effect of tooth loss on masticatory muscle pain of patients with bruxism

Abstract

Aim: It was aimed to compare the patients’ masticatory muscle pain according to the gender, side of the face with pain, muscletenderness, and tooth loss.Material and Methods: The patients were selected randomly and the data were collected from 109 patients aged 18-50 years. Patientswere examined by a maxillofacial surgeon and a prosthodontist blindly. During intraoral examination grinding, clenching confirmedby sleep partners or roommates, hyperkeratosis of cheek mucosa (linea alba), indented tongue, the unilateral masseter musclehypertrophy, tooth wear, hypersensitivity, pain and fatigue in the chewing muscles in the daytime or in the morning were recorded. Toclassify tooth loss the Eichner index was used. It was asked to participants to score the masticatory muscle pain. Each participantscored the masticatory muscle pain on a visual analog scale (VAS/0-10). Data were analyzed with a non-parametric Mann-WhitneyU test to compare the VAS results because the data were distributed non-normally. Chi-square test was used to compare categoricalvariables and Spearsman correlation test was performed to test the possible correlation between the masticatory muscle pain andage.