Van der Wal Annemarie, Michiels Sarah, Van de Heyning Paul, Braem Marc, Visscher Corine, Topsakal Vedat, Gilles Annick, Jacquemin Laure, Van Rompaey Vincent, De Hertogh Willem
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2610 Edegem, Antwerp, Belgium.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Antwerp University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2650 Edegem, Antwerp, Belgium.
J Clin Med. 2020 Mar 5;9(3):705. doi: 10.3390/jcm9030705.
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, is a perception of sound in the absence of overt acoustic stimulation. In some cases, tinnitus can be influenced by temporomandibular somatosensory input, then called temporomandibular somatosensory tinnitus (TST). It is, however, not entirely known if orofacial treatment can decrease tinnitus severity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of orofacial treatment on tinnitus complaints in patients with TST.
Adult patients with TST were included, and all patients received information and advice about tinnitus and conservative orofacial treatment consisting of physical therapy, and, in case of grinding, occlusal splints were applied. Included patients were randomly assigned to an early start group and a delayed start group according to our delayed treatment design.
In total, 40 patients were included in each group. The treatment effect on tinnitus severity was investigated using the tinnitus questionnaire (TQ) and Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). Regarding the TQ score, no clinically relevant reductions were observed, and no significant differences in the decrease were observed between the early start group and delayed start group. Contrarily, a significantly higher percentage of patients showed a decrease in the TQ degree in the early start group compared to the delayed start group (30.0% versus 2.8%, = 0.006). The TFI score did show a significantly greater and clinically relevant reduction in the early start group compared to the delayed start group ( = 0.042).
A multidisciplinary non-invasive orofacial treatment was able to reduce tinnitus severity in patients with temporomandibular related somatosensory tinnitus.
耳鸣，即耳内鸣响，是在没有明显声学刺激时对声音的一种感知。在某些情况下，耳鸣会受到颞下颌关节体感输入的影响，这种耳鸣被称为颞下颌关节体感性耳鸣（TST）。然而，口腔面部治疗是否能降低耳鸣严重程度尚不完全清楚。本研究的目的是评估口腔面部治疗对TST患者耳鸣症状的影响。
纳入成年TST患者，所有患者均接受了关于耳鸣和包括物理治疗在内的保守口腔面部治疗的信息及建议，对于磨牙患者，使用了咬合板。根据我们的延迟治疗设计，纳入的患者被随机分为早期开始治疗组和延迟开始治疗组。
每组共纳入40例患者。使用耳鸣问卷（TQ）和耳鸣功能指数（TFI）调查了对耳鸣严重程度的治疗效果。关于TQ评分，未观察到临床相关的降低，早期开始治疗组和延迟开始治疗组在降低程度上也未观察到显著差异。相反，与延迟开始治疗组相比，早期开始治疗组中TQ程度降低的患者比例显著更高（30.0%对2.8%，P = 0.006）。与延迟开始治疗组相比，早期开始治疗组的TFI评分确实显示出显著更大且具有临床意义的降低（P = 0.042）。
多学科非侵入性口腔面部治疗能够降低颞下颌关节相关体感性耳鸣患者的耳鸣严重程度。
