June, 2009, Vol. 11, No. 2

CONTENTS

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Evaluation of dental care and the prevalence of tooth decay among middle-aged and elderly population of Kaunas city
Jurate Zubiene, Simona Milciuviene, Jurate Klumbiene
42-47

Growth factors/cytokines/defensins and apoptosis in periodontal pathologies
Zane Laurina, Mara Pilmane, Ruta Care
48-54

Stress distribution of an internal connection implant prostheses set: A 3D finite element analysis
Regenio Mahfuz Herbstrith Segundo, Hugo Mitsuo Silva Oshima, Isaac Newton Lima da Silva, Luis Henrique Burnnet Junior, Eduardo Goncalves Mota, Liangrid Lutiani Silva
55-59

Intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid for temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis in elderly patients
Luca Guarda-Nardini, Daniele Manfredini, Marco Stifano, Alberto Staffieri, Gino Marioni
60-65

Evaluation of tensile strength of different configurations of orthodontic retraction loops for obtaining
optimized forces
Miceli Beck Guimaraes Blaya, Graziela Henriques Westphalen, Magali Beck Guimaraes, Luciana Mayumi Hirakata
66-69

© 2009 Stomatologija

Stomatologija 2009; 11 (2): 60-65 229 KB

Intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid for temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis in elderly patients

Luca Guarda-Nardini, Daniele Manfredini, Marco Stifano, Alberto Staffieri, Gino Marioni

Summary

Background. Preliminary findings gave encouraging results for the use of hyaluronic acid in temporomandibular joints with inflammatory/degenerative processes. This investigation aimed at evaluating retrospectively the efficacy of intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid in elderly patients (aged >65 years) with osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint as compared with those of a group of adult non-elderly patients.

Materials and methods. Two groups of patients with Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders axis I group IIIb diagnosis of osteoarthritis, aged over (N=17)/under (N=33) 65 years respectively (elderly/non-elderly groups), underwent a cycle of five injections (one per week) of 1 ml low molecular weight hyaluronic acid and four follow-up assessments after the end of the treatment (at one week, at one month, at three months, at six months).

Results. At the end of the treatment period, improvements in the elderly group were significant with respect to baseline values in the minimum and maximum masticatory pain, maximum pain at rest values, and functional limitation scores. In the non-elderly group, significant improvements at the end of treatment were showed in all treatment outcome variables, except than minimum pain at rest values. All improvements were maintained over the six-month span of the follow-up period, and no significant differences were showed between groups for any of the outcome variables, except than functional limitation scores, which improved more in the elderly group.

Conclusions. These findings are not supportive for a difference in efficacy between the elderly patients and the other subjects, even though further works on different age groups are needed before generalization of results.

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¹TMD Clinic, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

²Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Luca Guarda-Nardini¹ – M.D.

Daniele Manfredini¹ – D.D.S.

Marco Stifano¹ – D.D.S.

Alberto Staffieri² – M.D.

Gino Marioni² – M.D.

Address correspondence to: Dr. Daniele Manfredini, Viale XX Settembre 298, Marina di Carrara (MS), Italy.

E-mail address: daniele.manfredini@tin.it