Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2005; 10: 49
The aim of this study was to test whether or not an acupuncture and manual therapy combination would be effective on joint pain and mouth-opening limitation in patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD).
We treated 49 TMD patients (men 15, women 34; age 30.47 ± 13.52) with an acupuncture and manual therapy combination two or three times per week in Wonkwang Medical Center, and measured pain intensity with VAS and maximum mouth opening for temporomandibular joint function at the baseline (BL), 1 week after (1WK) and 4 weeks after (4 WK) treatment. The data were analysed with one-way repeat measured ANOVA.
The pain intensity was significantly reduced by treatments (F = 279.5, P = 0.001; BL 7.24 ± 1.96, 1 WK: 4.69 ± 1.59, 4 WK 2.18 ± 1.47). The mouth-opening limitation was also significantly improved by treatments (F = 68.2, P = 0.001; BL 39.88 ± 8.35 mm, 1 WK 43.98 ± 8.08 mm, 4 WK 47.16 ± 6.47 mm)
The results suggest that a combination of acupuncture and manual therapy may be beneficial for TMD. We speculated that acupuncture would be more beneficial for pain and manual therapy would be more helpful for joint limitations from the clinical point of view. However, controlled studies are needed to test the effects of each treatment.
