Summary Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are common chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions among orofacial pain. Painful TMD condition such as myalgia and arthralgia can be managed by exercise therapy. However, as it is hard to access actual effect of each modality that is included in an exercise therapy programme due to multiple choice of the management modality, their efficacy remains controversial. Therefore, this review focused on the effects of exercise therapy for the management of painful TMD. The aims of this review were to summarise the effects of exercise therapy for major symptoms of painful TMD and to establish a guideline for the management of painful TMD, resulting in higher quality and reliability of dental treatment. In this review, exercise modalities are clearly defined as follows: mobilisation exercise, muscle strengthening exercise (resistance training), coordination exercise and postural exercise. Furthermore, pain intensity and range of movements were focused as outcome parameters in this review. Mobilisation exercise including manual therapy, passive jaw mobilisation with oral appliances and voluntary jaw exercise appeared to be a promising option for painful TMD conditions such as myalgia and arthralgia. This review addressed not only the effects of exercise therapy on various clinical conditions of painful TMD shown in the past, but also an urgent need for consensus among dentists and clinicians in terms of the management of each condition, as well as terminology.

Clinical evidence regarding the prognosis of continuous neuropathic pain in the orofacial region is obviously insufficient, making it difficult to inform such patients of their prognosis of the disorder on the basis of clinical evidence. In this report, we have plotted the total amount of drugs taken per month by the patient as a good reference for the pain severity and the results clearly suggest that pain severity decreased with time. This kind of information may help both clinicians and patients for case-based explanation of the disorder.

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It has been eight years since CAD/CAM indirect resin crowns were included in the national health insurance in Japan. During this period, members of the Japanese Society of Prosthodontics have been accumulating basic research data and clinical evidence to improve this treatment. This paper summarizes the results of the research, including "currently recommended bonding procedures" and "overall clinical outcomes", and proposes "appropriate clinical techniques" and "principal patient explanations" based on the latest data and evidence. A wide range of factors contribute to the success of CAD/CAM indirect resin crown treatment, and dentists need to manage them comprehensively. In addition, we would like to examine the existing dogma that needs to be changed, and to attain close collaboration among the medical practice, industry, government, academia and private sector in order to disseminate this new metal-free treatment from Japan.