Botox For Oromandibular Dystonia: Hope For This Rare Condition

Oromandibular dystonia (OMD) involves involuntary and repetitive jaw movements and is often accompanied by bruxism – clenching or grinding of the teeth. While oromandibular dystonia is rare, its symptoms can interfere with chewing, speaking and even swallowing.

The condition is divided into jaw-opening (JO) movements and jaw-closing (JC) movements and is often seen in patients in connection with cervical dystonia or blepharospasm, involuntary eyelid movements. When unwanted contractions of the jaw and tongue occur along with spasms of muscles around the eye, the condition is called Meige’s syndrome.

More About Botox For Oromandibular Dystonia

Some forms of OMD are especially hard to treat, but Botox has helped many patients. For example, research has shown that in patients with Wilson’s disease accompanied by JO-OMD, Onabot-A – or Botox – provided mild to moderate improvement in movements with 60 percent of patients having only mild difficulty swallowing after treatment.

In another study of 162 patients who received Botox injections of 10 to 200 U into the masseters, the submental muscle complex or both, about 68 percent – 110 patients – saw functional improvement in speaking and chewing. The most common side effects were difficulty speaking and swallowing. There were significant differences, however, in side effects and outcomes depending on whether a patient had JC-OMD or JO-OMD.

There is also a connection between dystonia and bruxism, and other studies have shown that Botox is safe and effective for bruxism. When injections are done into the masseter muscles, pain and range of motion of the jaw improved in clinical research.

Clear The Confusion

For medical and dental professionals without specific training in OMD, proper dosages and injection sites would be almost impossible to work out. When you train with Dentox, you’ll learn medical and cosmetic uses for Botox from the originator of injectables instruction, Dr. Howard Katz. Reach out now or sign up for Botox and dermal filler training from the best in the business.