"Bite appliances for patients who suffer from temporomandibular disorder"

“This is a case that shows us beautifully how bite appliances can help us treat patients who suffer from temporomandibular disorder.

This patient came to us with severe muscle and joint pain on the right side, pain and difficulty in chewing, limited range of motion with deviation of the mandible towards the right side and pain on load testing. The CT shows us an active condilar resorbtion, and the MRI shows us a disc displacement without reduction on the right side.

 

With the help of the physiotherapist and a bite appliance that she wore for approximately one year, the simptoms disappeared, the range of motion normalised and newly cortical bone was formed. The objectives of the orthodontic treatment were to intrude the second molars in order to eliminate the premature contacts, to correct the maxillary cant by intruding the upper right quadrant and obtaining thus the vertical space needed for the rehabilitation of the lower right quadrant as well as distalisation in the upper left quadrant to obtain canine class one and to level the curve of Spee.

 

After the orthodontic treatment, my colleague, Dan Lazar started the prosthodontic rehabilitation with selective grinding, a wax up. a mock up until the final restaurations. She continued to wear a bitte appliance during night time and occlusal equilibration is performend every 6 months, an important aspect for these patients with active degererative joint disease in their history. “