[Sensory perceptive and discriminative abilities of patients with occlusal dysesthesia].
OBJECTIVE
It is not rare for dentists to come across patients who complain of several uncomfortable feelings of occlusion despite the absence of any observable occlusal anomaly or discrepancy. These kinds of symptoms are well defined by the term "occlusal dysesthesia" (OD). This study evaluated the occlusal perceptive and discriminative abilities in OD patients.


METHODS
The sensory perceptive and discriminative abilities were tested in 8 OD patients and 31 healthy subjects as controls. All of these subjects went through three types of tests: 1) thickness discrimination test by using occlusal registration foils, 2) thickness discrimination test by using bite block, and 3) mouth opening reproducibility test.


RESULTS
The median of the foil thickness discrimination ability of the control group was 14 microm and that of the patient group was 8 microm. In the bite block thickness discrimination test, both groups showed less than +/- 1mm thickness discrimination ability on average and were able to reproduce pre-indicated mouth opening with less than 10% error. There was no significant difference in these study results between the two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Sensory perceptive and discriminative abilities of OD patients were not significantly different from those of the healthy subjects in this study sample.
Baba
Kazuyoshi
K
Removable Prosthodontics, Department of Masticatory Function Rehabilitation, Division of Oral Health Sciences, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University. kazu.rpro@tmd.ac.jp
Aridome
Kumiko
K
Haketa
Tadasu
T
Kino
Koji
K
Ohyama
Takashi
T
D000328:Adult; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010292:Paresthesia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*