This study was performed to investigate the effect of adaptation of snoring appliance on the change of size of pharyngeal space and position of the mandible, hyoid bone and the tongue, and to determine the least amount of mandibular anterior positioning, which can be used for treating of concomitant temporomandibular disorders(TMD) and snoring.
For the study, 40 dental students were selected. They had no signs and symptoms of TMD except slight joint sound and also had no signs and symptoms of snoring. Two types of intraoral appliance were fabricated : mandibular anterior positioning splint(APS), commonly used for patients with TMD, and mandibular advancement device(MAD), which is one of major types of snoring appliance. The mean distance of mandibular advancement by each appliance was 3mm and 5mm, respectively.
Cephalometric radiographs were taken in the three mandibular position, namely, without appliance, with APS, and with MAD, and were traced for the selected twenty-one items, related to cervical posture, size of pharyngeal space, and position of the mandible, hyoid bone and the tongue.
The data were processed with SPSS windowsR program for the change of each item by intraoral device, the correlation among items, and the difference of change between high and low group divided by some parameters.
The result obtained were as follows :
1. Increase of pharyngeal space(PS-A2) corresponding to nasopharynx, anterior inferior movement of the mandible, and increase of distance from palate to posterior part of dorsum of tongue were observed by adaptation of intraoral devices, especially by MAD.
2. Correlation among CVT angle, ABaB angle, mandibular plane angle, and PS-A2 were stasistically significnat in all the three mandibular position. There were positive correlation among CVT angle, ABaB angle, mandibular plane angle, meanwhile, these items showed negative correlation with PS-A2.
3. When all the subjects were divided into high and low group according to mean value of some parameters such as CVT angle, ABaB angle, and mandibular plane angle in ordinary position, low group generally showed more significant change by intraoral devices than high group did.
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