Dr. Adams' Alabama Headache Blog

Occlusal forces of bruxism are traumatic, damaging teeth or supporting bone. With implants, there are no ligamentous attachments between bone and implant with foces transmitted directly to bone. In addition, receptors in the periodontal ligaments are absent and communication with the motor nucleus of the trigeminal nerve, effecting feedback controling jaw closure and protecting from excessive closing forces is non-existant. It would be expected that dental implant and superstructure problems would be more likely in bruxing patients than non-bruxers. To test this hypothesis, 47 patients with implant prostheses were studied: 17 exhibited signs of bruxism and 30 controls did not brux according to a bruxism questionnaire. The two groups were compared for 1)pain, 2)implant mobility, 3) periodontal pocket depth and 4) problems with dental implants and prosthetic superstructures such as implant abutment fracture, gold screw loosening or fracture, broken denture teeth, clip loosening and porcelain breakage. A positive significant relaitonship was found between bruxism (based on a bruxism questionnaire) and problems with prosthetic superstructures based on implant examination: 76% of the bruxism group and 27% of teh control group had problems with superstructures. Ten patients were selected at random from each group and fitted with a Bruxcore bruxism monitoring device to assess current bruxing. The experimental subgroup showed significantly greater Bruxcore scores and tooth wear indices than the control group. The results indicate that tooth wear index and the Bruxcore may be used to diagnose bruxism and bruxism reduces long-term success of implant treatment.