DISCLAIMER:
The type of magnet used is this study is not a Q Magnet.
The safety and effectiveness of Q Magnets has not been established in the treatment of dental or TMJ pain.
A recent paper studying the effects of an inhomogeneous magnetic field on dental pain was published in the International Journal of Radiation Biology. While the size of the study was relatively small (29 for TMJ pain) and of short duration (5 min), none the less, it demonstrated a significant pain relieving effect over placebo. The magnetic device used in this study was not a Q Magnet, but being a multipolar magnet they share many of the same characteristics.
This was a double blind randomised controlled trial that looked at three types of dental pain – temperomandibular joint (TMJ), mouth ulcer (aphtha) and inflammation of the tooth socket (alveolitis).
The TMJ pain cohort had 16 in the active magnet group and 13 in the placebo. Pain measures using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were taken immediately before and after the application of the magnetic devices and 5 minutes later immediately before and after removal with averages taken for pre and post intervention.
For the TMJ group wearing the active magnetic device, the VAS pain scores reduced from around 4 to 2, while the placebo group reduced from 4 to 3.5 which was statistically significant (p = 0.0003).
Reduction of pain sensation between active and sham group for magnetic therapy
The anecdotal evidence from thousands of patients treated with Q Magnets, is the pain relieving effects become much less reliable where there is an infection or fever. This could be due to the fact that there are different pain mechanisms involved where there is a strong immune response, which maybe why the static magnetic field intervention had less of an effect on the aphtha and alveolitis groups.
See more on inhomogeneous static magnetic fields here and more research on magnetic therapy here.
REFERENCE:
Laszlo, J., et al. (2012) “Effect of local exposure to inhomogeneous static magnetic field on stomatological pain sensation – a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study.” Int J Radiat Biol. 2012 Feb 28
PMID: 22288770; doi.