2023 Volume 35 Issue 2 Pages 70-76
The basic management of TMD should begin with an explanation of the pathophysiology and self-care instruction, followed by non-invasive treatment, mainly physical therapy, pharmacotherapy, and appliance therapy. One of these conservative interventions, appliance therapy, has been reported to be effective for short-term pain relief, especially for myalgia, according to a 2017 meta-analysis, and we can confidently recommend this appliance therapy for these patients.
On the other hand, looking back at this appliance therapy from a prosthetic point of view, we have applied this occlusal appliance to a wide range of treatments, although the evidence is not yet well established. It is difficult to continue treatment without an occlusal appliance, especially when the occlusal height is elevated or in cases of acquired anterior open bite associated with temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis.
This paper focuses on three points: 1) TMD symptoms that can be effectively treated with appliance therapy, 2) symptom-specific methods of using occlusal appliances, and 3) application to cases of acquired anterior open bite associated with morphological changes in the temporomandibular joint from a prosthetic standpoint.
