Comparative Analysis of the Influence of Selected Physical Factors on the Level of Pain in the Course of Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

Abstract

Introduction. Temporomandibular joints (TMJs) play a very significant function in the activity of the locomotor system of the masticatory system. But they are often a source of pain, myopathy, myoarthropathy, and malfunction of their surrounding or internal structures. The treatment of a patient’s discomfort associated with masticatory system dysfunctions strongly depends on their cause. Aim of the Study. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of selected physical factors: LED light therapy with electromagnetic field and cryotherapy for the level of pain, in the treatment of patients suffering from temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Materials and Methods. The study included 60 patients of both genders with diagnosed TMD in a clinical trial. The participants were randomly divided into two groups. Each group consisted of 30 people and was subjected to separate therapies in which LED light therapy with electromagnetic field (MLT) and cryotherapy (CT) were applied. Results. Having assessed the results of the author’s own research in terms of analgesic activity, determined on the VAS scale during the daily routine activity of the mandible and its individual movements, in general, each of the studied groups demonstrated a considerable decrease in the level of the patients’ perception of pain (<0.001). Having compared both the therapeutic methods used, a greater reduction in the level of perceived pain was achieved with MLT (p=0.002). The type of therapy used turned out to be the only significant factor for the magnitude of this reduction. Conclusions. Conclusions based on the results of our own research indicate that the selected methods of treatment demonstrate an analgesic effect in terms of the overall discomfort in the course of TMD, and that they may be an alternative pain relief thereby reducing the patient’s intake of painkillers.

Kinesiology Taping as an Innovative Measure against Post-Operative Complications after Third Molar Extraction—Systematic Review

“…In the craniofacial area, the effectiveness of kinesiotaping in reducing swelling and pain was also found in more severe injuries as zygomatic–orbital fractures [ 38 ], mandibular fractures [ 39 ], and after orthognathic surgery [ 40 , 41 ]. It was also reported as effective in reducing the symptoms of chronical TMD [ 42 , 43 ].…”

Blue-light treatment reduces spontaneous and evoked pain in a human experimental pain model

“…9,11,14,19,21,42 In addition to low-level laser therapy, several preclinical and clinical studies have suggested the application of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for the treatment of various conditions involving acute nociceptive and chronic pain. 10,12,16,27,[30][31][32]40,[45][46][47]53 Although most studies have focused on the use of red and infrared light, few preclinical and clinical studies have explored the use of lower wavelength light. 22,33 In a rat model of acute nociceptive pain, green and to a lesser extent blue light (BL) exhibited thermal analgesic effects.…”

Electromagnetic fields as a non-invasive alternative therapy for the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases

“…Most of the studies that carried out trials of the application of EMF in the management of any pathology were developed in accordance with Declaration of Helsinki (Casalechi et al, 2020;Elshiwi et al, 2019;Mohajerani et al, 2019;Multanen et al, 2018) or endorsed by institution's ethics committee. Some studies used measurement scales to know the level of improvement in both pain, inflammation or disability of patients, such as visual analog scale (VAS) (Hattapoğlu et al, 2019;Kopacz et al, 2020), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index ( WOMAC) (Bagnato et al, 2016;Chen et al, 2019), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) (Paolucci et al, 2016), Generalized Pain Index (WPI) (El Zohiery et al, 2021), Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NRS) (Abdulla et al, 2019;El Zohiery et al, 2021), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) (Paolucci et al, 2016) and American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA, Tarlov Scale (Ross et al, 2017). It is important to highlight that there were several modalities of EMF therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration, where one of them was the PEMF, which is one of the most used therapies in the studies analyzed (Hu et al, 2020;Iwasa & Reddi 2018;Pesqueira et al, 2018;Ross et al, 2017;Vicenti et al, 2018).…”