Our results suggest that botulinum toxin injection reduced the number of bruxism events, most likely mediated its effect through a decrease in muscle activity rather than the central nervous system. We controlled for placebo effects by randomizing the interventions between groups, obtaining subjective and objective outcome measures, using the temporalis muscle as a control, and collecting data at three postinjection times. Our controlled study supports the use of botulinum toxin injection as an effective treatment for nocturnal bruxism.

The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of orofacial pain symptoms in the Korean elderly population, and to evaluate factors associated with orofacial pain and graded chronic pain. Of 4,342 Korean elders from the cohort of Korean National Interview Survey of Oral Health Status in 2000, telephone interviews were conducted on a stratified random sample of 1,032 people aged 55 years or older. Prevalence of five orofacial pain symptoms (jaw joint pain, face pain, toothache, oral sores, and burning mouth) in the past 6 months along with questions from the graded chronic pain scale were assessed by telephone using a structured questionnaire. The results suggested that the 6-month prevalence of joint pain (15.5%), face pain (9.3%), toothache (26.8%), oral sores (26.2%), and burning mouth (14.2%) in Korean elders were higher than in studies on Caucasian populations. Painful oral sores and burning mouth had higher prevalence for females than for males. Subjects with joint pain, burning mouth or toothache pain were more likely to report high levels of a pain-related disability compared with subjects not reporting those symptoms. There were no age group differences in pain intensity, but the older age group reported a higher number of disability days because of their pain. Chronic orofacial pain is a substantial health problem in the elderly population.

No abstract

No abstract

We interpret the reduced change in pressure pain threshold with botulinum toxin as a clinically modest but statistically significant analgesic effect on this model of acute muscle pain.