Assessment of somatosensory changes in Chinese temporomandibular disorders arthralgia patients by quantitative sensory testing

Background Somatosensory changes in Chinese temporomandibular disorders (TMD) arthralgia patients have not been fully studied by the latest technologies. Objective This study aims at assessing somatosensory changes in Chinese TMD arthralgia patients quantitatively. Methods Standardised quantitative sensory testing (QST) was performed on the pain sites and contralateral sites of 40 patients diagnosed with TMD arthralgia according to the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) before and after medication; similar measures were taken in 40 age‐ and gender‐matched healthy controls. Differences within and between groups were assessed through Z‐scores, two‐way ANOVA and loss/gain coding system. Results The pain sites of patients presented increased sensitivity to thermal stimuli and mechanical pain stimuli together with decreased sensitivity to mechanical tactile stimuli before medication (P