In-vivo evaluation of two different occlusal splints on bite force in patients with nocturnal bruxism

In this study, we evaluated efficiency of hard occlusal splints with canine guided occlusion and Bruxogard-Soft splint on bite force. 12 patients with bruxism who were diagnosed according to clinical examination and self report of patients and 6 healthy subjects participated in the study. While 6 of bruxism patients were using hard occlusal splints, the other 6 subjects used Bruxogard-Soft splint during 6 weeks. Before insertion of splints, maximum bite force and lateral cephalometric film of subjects were took from all subjects who participated in the study and bite force values and cephalometric measurement differences were compared between bruxists and healthy subjects. In the third week and end of the treatment, we took bite force recordings of bruxists and evaluated the effect of using splints on bite force. As a result, there was not found any statistically differences in the angular cephalometric measurements between patients with bruxists and heathy subjects. Only anterior S-N and ANS-PNS measurements of linear cephalometric measurements were found to be higher in healthy subjects, in the other linear cephalometric measurements, any significant differences was not found. There was no statistically difference of the bite force values between patients with bruxism and healthy subjects. Bruxists who using hard splints showed increased bite force value after treatment, however this increasing was not statistically significant. Bite force value of bruxism patients who using Bruxogard-Soft splint decreased and it was statistically significant. In conclusion, it was proposed that higher bite force value of bruxism patients decreased and, in contrast, lower bite force value of bruxism patients increased with using occlusal splints, so use of the occlusal splint has the effect of normalizing the bite force.