Endogenous Pain Inhibition Deficiency in Chronic TMD Pain

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) involve a range of conditions with varied causes, affecting a large portion of the U.S. population and posing challenges for diagnosis and management, especially in chronic cases. Despite advances in understanding TMD pathophysiology, the role of central sensitization, particularly deficient endogenous pain inhibition, remains unclear. The conditioned pain modulation (CPM) test, used to assess pain inhibition in chronic TMD pain, has produced inconsistent results due to varying testing parameters. The proposed cross-sectional study will investigate the efficiency of endogenous pain inhibition in individuals with chronic TMD pain compared to controls by applying noxious and non-noxious stimuli to facial and non-facial sites. The findings aim to clarify the impact of weaker pain inhibition over the face, how the conditioning stimulus' painfulness affects inhibition and the relationship between pain inhibition and fluctuations in TMD pain intensity.

NCT Number	NCT06617494
Lead Sponsor	University of Minnesota
Conditions	Chronic Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD)
Enrollment	40 participants
Start Date	2024-09-16
Primary Completion	2026-12-31 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-08-14