To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: WCP: Botox (Botulinum toxin A) Not Effective for Treatment of Moderate to Severe Chronic Jaw Pain in Women URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/21BBB2.htm Doctor's Guide August 21, 2002
By Peggy Peck Special to DG News SAN DIEGO, CA -- August 21, 2002 -- Botulinum toxin A (Botox) is not effective for treatment of chronic moderate to severe jaw pain in women, but it does appear to limit the ability to achieve maximum jaw opening, according to results of a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled crossover trial. The findings were presented here August 19th at the 10th World Congress on Pain. Donald R. Nixdorf, DDS, MS, clinical assistant professor, University of Minnesota, in Menneapolis, Minnesota, United States, said his results are contrary to reports from other investigators. "But those earlier studies were all open label studies, which tend to exaggerate positive findings," he explained in an interview. He conducted the study while at University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Even though his study found Botox to be "an expensive but non-effective treatment" for chronic jaw pain, Dr. Nixdorf said he does use Botox to treat other conditions-especially severe, unrelenting bruxism that causes both dental and jaw damage. "For those patients, who may also have morbidities associated with apnea, I think that Botox is a good treatment because it gives the jaw some rest," he said. He recruited 15 women aged 18 to 45 years. Treatment consisted of 25 U of Botox or saline injected into each temporalis muscle and 50 U injected into each masseter muscle using three sites per muscle with 0.2 cc per site. Data were collected at baseline, 8, 16, 24 weeks. Patients were crossed over after 16 weeks of each treatment. Among the 10 patients who completed the study no statistically significant difference was found in pain intensity (p=0.10), unpleasantness (p=0.40), palpation muscle tenderness (p=0.91), or responses to four open-ended questions (p=0.61, p=1.00). Botox treated patients had a statistically significant relative decrease in maximum interincisal opening without pain (p=0.02), and maximum interincisal opening irrespective of pain (p=0.005). The study was funded by the University of Alberta Fund for Dentistry, Allergan Canada and McNeil Pharmaceutics. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.