Germán Betancur, Juan Pablo SanÃÂÂÂn, Gustavo Ortiz, Pablo Correa
Numerous treatment alternatives have been suggested for the management of bruxism and myofascial pain with variable results, including the local app lication of botulinum toxin; however few studies ha ve been reported and with limited sample size. The obje ctive of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficiency of botulinum toxin type A for the treatm ent of patients with myofascial pain associated wit h severe bruxism. An interventional, blind, longitudi nal twelve month study was carried out; sample size consisted of forty patients with a diagnosis of myo fascial pain associated with severe bruxism on whom botulinum toxin type A was applied; patients w ere evaluated prior to application at 3, 6, 9 and 1 2 months and variables including age, sex, spontaneou s and provoked pain, mandibular opening, mandibular deviation and presence of joint noises w ere considered. 77.7% of the sample consisted of women with an average age of 33.56 ± 12.17 years ol d. 80.5% reported improvement for both spontaneous and provoked pain during treatment, out of which 51.7% presented increased pain 3 and 6 months, 13.7% increased pain between 6 and 9 mont hs and 3.4% between 9 and 12 months. Application of botulinum toxin type A is a safe an d effective treatment for myofascial pain associate d with severe bruxism and its therapeutic effect requ ires new applications every three to six months for its effectiveness to persist.
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