Jaw Exercise Therapy and Psychoeducation to Reduce Oral Parafunctional Activities for the Management of Persistent Dentoalveolar Pain

OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyze the effects of our original combination therapy treatment on patients with nonodontogenic persistent dentoalveolar pain. METHODS: Twenty-one patients suffering from persistent dentoalveolar pain (nineteen females and two males; mean age ± standard deviation: 55.7 ± 19.6 years) participated in this study. They were treated with a therapy combination of jaw exercise and psychoeducation to reduce oral parafunctional activities every month. The intensity of pain in these subjects was evaluated using a numerical rating scale (NRS) before and after treatment. RESULTS: The NRSs at the baseline ranged from 5 to 10 (median, 8), from 0 to 10 (median, 2) at one month after treatment, from 0 to 10 (median, 1) at three months after treatment, and from 0 to 10 (median, 0) at the end of treatment. Pain intensity after treatment improved significantly. CONCLUSION: There was a significant reduction in pain after our combination of therapies as nonpharmacological treatments, and therefore this treatment could be useful in the management of NPDP patients.