Epidemiological study of bruxism-induced tooth pain and establishment of diagnosis guidelines

本研究由3个实验组成。在第一项研究中，牙医、牙科卫生员和牙科学生被要求回答关于牙齿疼痛和磨牙症之间关系的问卷调查。几乎所有的牙医都回答说，磨牙症可能会导致牙痛，但他们中的一些人并没有告知或解释给他们的患者。有相当多的牙医没有明确的诊断磨牙症的类别。在实验的第二部分，健康的队列被招募来患有咬合引起的牙齿疼痛。采用问卷调查法进行主观报告，采用K7评估系统(R)监测MKG/EMG的功能状态。虽然咬合没有引起牙齿疼痛，但一些队列感到肌肉收紧疼痛。在第三个实验中，肌肉疲劳通过磁共振成像进行监测。咬合后T2值明显升高。提示磨牙症患者由于慢性肌肉疲劳，可能具有较高的T2值。我们的最终目标是制定诊断和治疗磨牙症的指南。这是通过出版两本关于磨牙症的教科书来实现的。

This study was composed of 3 experiments. In the first study, dentists, dental hygienists, and dental students were asked to answer questionnaire concerning the relationship between tooth pain and bruxism. Almost all dentists answered that tooth pain can be derived from bruxism, but some of them do not inform or explain to their patients. There were quite a few dentists that do not have distinctive category for diagnosing bruxism. In the second part of the experiment, healthy cohorts were recruited to have clenching-induced tooth pain. The condition was reported subjectively by questionnaire, and functional status of MKG/EMG was monitored using K7 evaluation system(R). Although no tooth pain was induced by clenching, some cohorts felt tightening pain in the muscles. In the third experiment, muscle fatigue was monitored by MR imaging. The T2 value rose significantly after clenching. It was suggested that patients with bruxism might have higher T2 value because of their chronic muscle fatigue. Our final goal was to make the guidelines for diagnosing and treating bruxism. This was achieved by publishing two text books regarding bruxism.