OBJECTIVETo study the short-term effects of nociceptive trigeminal inhibitory tension suppression system (NTI-tss) and occlusal stabilization splint (OS) on sleep bruxism patients.

METHODSTen patients received the two splint treatments in a randomized cross-over fashion: An NTI-tss and an OS for a 1-week period, respectively. Record the bruxism episodes per hour, micro-arousals per hour of the patients before wearing the splints (baseline), the first night and 1 week after wearing the splints with polysomnography. Statistical analysis was performed with SAS 9.1 by means of mixed effect model analysis.

RESULTSThere were no differences among the micro-arousal index of the baseline, the first night and 1 week later with both types of the splints (P>0.05). The NTI-tss was associated with a significant reduction in bruxism index compared with baseline. The bruxism index of baseline, the first night and 1 week later were 7.50 +/- 1.11, 3.45 +/- 1.22, and 3.51 +/- 1.03 per hour(the first night vs baseline, t=26.52, P<0.01; 1 week vs baseline, t=26.12, P<0.01). There were also significant differences in the bruxism index after wearing the OS. The bruxism index of baseline, the first night and 1 week later were 7.44 +/- 1.23, 2.97 +/- 0.91 and 6.43 +/- 1.02 per hour(the first night vs baseline, t=16.79, P<0.01; 1 week vs baseline, t=3.79, P<0.01). Compared with the NTI-tss group, the reduction was much less, especially 1 week later.

CONCLUSIONBoth the NTI-tss and the OS splints can reduce the bruxism index, and have no affect the incidence of micro-arousal. In this short term study, the NTI-tss was more effective than the OS for the treatment of sleep bruxism.