Acupuncture in the Treatment of Painful Dysfunction of the Temporomandibular Joint – a Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the results of randomized clinical trials on the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of painful dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint. Materials and Methods: A literature search of 3 electronic databases was performed, and only randomized studies comparing acupuncture-treated patients with either untreated or conservatively treated control groups were included. For this purpose, results were compared in narrative and tabular form. Results: To date, only 8 publications representing 6 randomized clinical trials have looked into the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of craniomandibular dysfunction. With the exception of one, all studies were published in Sweden, between 1985 and 1992. A more recent US study was the only one to apply sham acupuncture to test the efficacy of acupuncture. All studies share methodological shortcomings, including a lack of detailed descriptions of the randomization procedures, point selection, possible dropouts and undesirable events as well as attempts to identify a possible placebo effect of the acupuncture. Only 1 study investigated long-term results. Although based on the improvement of subjective and objective criteria, all studies consider acupuncture as an effective treatment for painful dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint, the good results achieved must be interpreted with caution because of the methodological shortcomings identified. Conclusion: Acupuncture appears to be a suitable complementary treatment method in the management of craniomandibular dysfunction. However, its significance has to be further evaluated in future studies.

Management of TMD: evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses

“…Eight SRs evaluated various physical treatments in patients with TMD ( Table 2). Of these SRs, six assessed acupuncture (23,(29)(30)(31)(32), three jaw exercises (23,33,34), two manual therapy (33,34), and three various forms of electrical therapy (30,34). Three SRs reported that acupuncture was better than no treatment, four SRs that acupuncture and other therapies yielded similar results, and one SR that acupuncture and placebo treatment had similar results.…”

Acupuncture analgesia for temporal summation of experimental pain: A randomised controlled study

“…In addition, previous studies in healthy humans only tested the immediate effect of acupuncture. However, in the clinic and in animal studies, the effect of one‐session acupuncture might last for 24–72 h (Guo et al, 1996b; Fink et al, 2006). Furthermore, acupuncture analgesia has been shown to be widespread in the body.…”

Acupuncture and Electroacupuncture Treatment for Temporomandibular Joint Disorder Focused on Recent Randomized-Controlled Studies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…These studies have also been reported in systematic reviews and meta-analyses [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, an additional review study was needed because these review studies were either not included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) during the search [5,7,10,11], focused on the effectiveness of other treatments [6,19,20], utilized other treatments [8,9], or needed to be updated because they have been published several years ago [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The previous review studies investigated RCTs published until 2017 and reported that acupuncture was significantly effective for TMD [5,8].…”

“…Various clinical studies on acupuncture for TMD, including randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), are being conducted in Korea and worldwide. These studies have also been reported in systematic reviews and meta-analyses [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, an additional review study was needed because these review studies were either not included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) during the search [5,7,10,11], focused on the effectiveness of other treatments [6,19,20], utilized other treatments [8,9], or needed to be updated because they have been published several years ago [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”