Abstract

Dr. Budima Pejkovska Shahpaska* and Biljana Kapusevska

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Bruxism as a parafunctional habit can be an unpleasant, painful experience for the patient. Sometimes patients suffer a lot of pain, swelling, reduction of opening of the mouth and unaware of their condition visit many specialists. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to represent a case study of a patient with night bruxism that came to the dental office suffering a lot of pain. Material and method: The patient was diagnosed for night bruxism with clinical and paraclinical methods. Intraorally the index for Smith and Knight was applied. Paraclinically a bruxchecker was developed. After that pharmacological therapy was administered and physiotherapy was used. For the patient a splint was custom made with the material durasoft@pd from Scheu Dental Technology, Germany. Tens Laser was used as additional therapy. Results and discussion: When the patient visited the dental office, she suffered enormous pain. She was treated previously from different therapists with different treatment modalities, yet still her pain persisted. After all the treatments applied and producing the soft/hard splint with the adjuvant therapy the patient felt that her symptoms gradually disappeared. The patient was followed for a period of one year. Conclusion: Temporomandibular dysfunctions can occur as a consequence of the forces of bruxism that develop during the night.