Etiology, Diagnosis and Management of Oromandibular Dystonia: an Update for Stomatologists

Oromandibular dystonia (OMD) is a rare focal neurological disorder that affects mouth, face, and jaws. This comprehensive literature review aimed to summarize the current evidence for etiology, diagnosis, and management of OMD and assess the possibility of dental origin of the disease and dental treatment plans for these patients.
Different online databases namely PubMed, Google scholar, and Scopus were searched. The keywords “oromandibular dystonia”, “orofaciomandibular dystonia”, “orofacial-buccal dystonia”, “lingual dystonia”, “jaw dystonia”, “cranial dystonia”, and “adult-onset facial dystonia” were searched in the title and abstract of publications from 1970 to 2016. The inclusion criterion was the dental etiology and/or dental treatment. Out of 1260 articles, only 37 articles met the inclusion criteria. OMD can be caused or exacerbated through different dental treatments within which anyone is likely to be involved due to various reasons. Some novel methods employed to relieve this syndrome have led to certain cure or improvement of symptoms in several cases. OMD patients may refer to dentists with involuntary jaw movements and intraoral presentations. Thus, the dentists should be aware of the symptoms and signs and refer the suspicious cases. Dentists should also be familiar with special considerations when managing OMD patients.