The aim of the study was to compare patient satisfaction with different types of stents using visual analogue scale and Pain report analysis.
Materials and methods: Thirty dentulous patients were selected, based on the clinical examination, the patients were suffering from pain in the temporomandibular joint region that might be worse in the morning or associated with eating,tenderness of temporomandibular joint with palpation at rest and/or at function, pain and/or tenderness of masseter and temporalis muscle.The patients were randomly divided into three equal groups, ten patients in each group. Splints were constructed for the upper arch of each patient. Soft, hard and 3 Dprinted stents were fabricated. Pain intensity questionnaire (visual analogue scale) and Pain report analysis were used before treatment, after three months and six months.
Results: Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the ordinal scale date of the visual analogue scale and pain report analysis. There was significance difference between the three groups. (Soft, hard and three D printed) after three month and six month of using the stent. Wicoxon test was used to test for significance between the different groups at three months and six months. The Wilcoxon test for visual analogue scale at three months showed that the hard and 3D printed stent are statistically significant to soft splint. The same was for the six months period. While Wilcoxon test for pain report analysis at 3 months didn't show any statistical significance between the three groups, while at six month there was statistical significance between the hard splint and the 3 D printed splint with the soft splint. Friedman's test was used to compare between different time intervals inside the groups. There was a statistical significance between the three groups during the three months and six months interval time of the treatment.
Conclusion: All patients improved over time. The results showed that both hard and soft splints are effective but the hard splint and the three D printed splints are more effective compared to soft splint.