The goal of this senior design project is to produce an alternative to the current market of dental guards available that non-invasively treat Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD). TMJD occurs w..
The goal of this senior design project is to produce an alternative to the current market of dental guards available that non-invasively treat Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD). TMJD occurs when there is an anterior dislocation of the articular disk in reference to the condyle. The focus of the design is to prevent patients that have been rehabilitated by a specialist from regressing due to bruxism. Bruxism is a condition where teeth grind, gnash, or clench involuntarily at any time of the day, especially during sleep time. Bruxism engages the Masseter, Temporalis, MedialPterygoid, and Lateral Pterygoid muscles to continuously be under involuntary movement which leads to the exhaustion of the muscles and jaw joints and therefore can provoke rehabilitated patients' symptoms to worsen. The current market provides numerous types of dental guards that reduce the effect of bruxism on the excessive wear and damage of the teeth. Nonetheless, these dental guards do not prevent protrusion, protraction, retraction, or lateral or medial excursion. This is a current issue as the individual is exerting forces on their jaw with the grinding movement which causes the articular disk to slip. The design aims to produce a dental guard that can relieve the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) from pressure while it is under bruxism, preventing the patient’s symptoms from augmenting. The design process consists of 3D printing a two-piece dental guard out of Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) filament and elastic 50A resin. As for the early testing stage, the product will initially be tested on a skull model made of Polylactic acid (PLA) filament. Depending on the testing results, it could progressively lead to the phase of being approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to test on an experimental group. The requirements being considered while designing are safety, the effectiveness of relieving TMJ frompressure while it is under bruxism, comfortability, weight, time that it should be worn, and cost as dental guards are designed to degrade over time.