Researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine have received a $17 million grant to study temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and advance more effective pain management therapies.
Furthermore, the research team plans to use brain imaging to better characterize patients with TMDs and track them using wearable technology and a mobile app, according to a news release from the university dated January 7.
“Through this study, we aim to help provide better diagnosis, as well as address prevention techniques, develop effective and personalized therapies and expand the research workforce,” Dr. Richard Ohrbach, PhD, a professor of oral diagnostic sciences at the university, said in the release.
Funded by the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the study will analyze data from 1,000 patients with TMDs and 300 TMD-free controls across five sites. Researchers will use clinical and behavioral measures to assess jaw and muscle pain, overlapping pain conditions, psychological factors, and sleep, according to the release.
The grant will support a multidisciplinary team spanning bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, data science, epidemiology, neuroscience, joint mechanics, pain research, and healthcare implementation. The university’s bioinformatics team will develop core ontological definitions, beginning with terms such as “pain” and “injury.”
The framework will then be expanded to cover the full TMD disease spectrum, including diagnosis and treatment. As one of the 10 chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs), TMDs significantly influence pain outcomes in other COPCs and are influenced by them, according to the release.
Additionally, the project hopes to apply ontological approaches to refine TMD concepts and identify gaps in previous research. Researchers will use brain imaging and wearable technology, including mobile apps that track mood, energy, and daily behaviors over time.
“Physicians and dentists often don’t understand the disorders, and health insurers don’t want to pay for treating these disorders because they don’t know what they are,” Ohrbach said. “This is something we hope our research will change.”
