Objective: To assess the efficacy of therapeutic ear plugs in the treatment of myogenous TMD compared to stabilization splints.
Materials and Methods: 60 patients suffering from myogenous TMD according to DC/TMD criteria where divided into 2 group, stabilization splint group, and a group treated with therapeutic ear plugs. Pain was evaluated using visual analog scale VAS, and mouth opening was evaluated using a mouth opening index OI, after 1 and 3 months.
Results: Pain was reduced significantly in the ear plug group, dropping from 7.18 to 3.82 after 1 month and to 2.41 after 3 months. For the splint group there was significant drop in pain after 3 months where it decreased from 7.34 to 2.63, while it showed a non-significant decrease after 1 month (6.16). OI showed significant improvement in mouth opening in the ear plug group decreasing from 10.34 to 6.14 after 1 month and to 5.13 after 3 months. In the splint group the OI improved significantly from 11.06 to 4.87 after 3 months, while the improvement wasn't significant after 1 month (9.85).
Conclusions: Therapeutic ear plugs are a discrete, small, and effective alternative to stabilization splint in the treatment of myogenous TMD, and its full-time wear advantage over the splint makes its action more rapid.