Efficacy of dextrose prolotherapy for the management of chronic temporomandibular disorders

Abstract

Background and objective: Temporomandibular disorders defined as multiple orofacial conditions that cause pain at temporomandibular joint or associated muscles or both of them, limitation of mouth opening, problem of lateral movement of the jaw and functional joint sounds. Temporomandibular disorders can be treated with non invasive or invasive therapy according to the indication of each condition, non invasive therapy involve medication, physiotherapy, oral splints, injection therapy while invasive therapy include arthrocentesis, arthroscope or surgery. The present study designated to find out the effect of dextrose prolotherapy as a hypertonic material for treating common chronic temporomandibular disorders. Methods: 40 patients were divided into two groups randomly, prolotherapy group received dextrose injection, while medication group received myogesic and profen tab. The variables recorded are pain of the joint, masseter muscle, degree of mouth opening, clicking and hypermobility, follow up period was 1 week, 1 month, and 2 months. Results: The mean of joint pain score and masseter muscle pain score of the medication group were higher than those of the prolotherapy group, but the differences were not significant (p = 0.253, and p = 0.102 respectively).