Search Results Within Category "Dentistry"

The goal of this study is to develop and test a new way of measuring how much effort and strain the jaw muscles can handle before a person begins to feel specific levels of pain or fatigue. This involves a controlled jaw exercise task designed to better understand the relationship between jaw muscle effort, physical stress in the muscles, and how each person experiences discomfort. It is hoped that the information learned in this study will help researchers refine this new jaw testing method and confirm whether it accurately measures jaw muscle effort and discomfort. This may support future research that improves how jaw pain conditions are understood and eventually lead to better, more individualized treatments for people with jaw muscle and jaw joint disorders.

The purpose of this research is to better understand how alcohol impacts pain processing in people with Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD) using MRI technology.

The goal of this study is to learn more about a new way of gathering information about a person’s jaw muscle pain – taking scans of the jaw muscles while a person bites down on a special device. It is hoped that the information learned in this study will help the study team to design a bigger study on this new way of learning about jaw muscle pain, which may lead to better, more individualized treatments for jaw muscle pain for future patients.

We are studying brain mechanisms related to chronic temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain. We are looking at brain structural and functional characteristics that can potentially explain why some people experience persistent pain in their jaws for months or years. We will compare this to information we get from people who do not experience TMD pain. We expect that this new knowledge will improve our understanding of this chronic pain condition and help us develop better treatments.