Manipulative and Multimodal Therapy for Upper Extremity and Temporomandibular Disorders: A Systematic Review

Efficacy of musculoskeletal manual approach in the treatment of temporomandibular joint disorder: A systematic review with meta-analysis

“…An advanced electronic search (without additional filters) in the NLM, using the key words "musculoskeletal manipulations" and "temporomandibular disorders", showed the existence of 151 articles related to the topics. Considering the evidence of this association, specifically investigated by systematic reviews, it is possible to find in an electronic search three articles: two of them (Medlicott and Harris, 2006;McNeely et al, 2006) were conducted to analyze the effectiveness of various physical therapy modalities in TMD and another one to analyze the effectiveness of manipulative and multimodal therapy (chiropractic, osteopathic, orthopedic, physical therapies) in TMD (Brantingham et al, 2013). In the review of McNeely et al (2006) just one randomized clinical trial (RCT) provided evidence for the use of manual approach combined with active exercises to reduce pain and improve mouth opening.…”

Cadaveric Validation of Dry Needle Placement in the Lateral Pterygoid Muscle

“…13 In fact, soft tissues can be treatment with manual therapies or dry needling. 14 A recent meta-analysis concluded that trigger point dry needling obtained grade A of effectiveness for decreasing pain immediately after treatment and at a 4-week follow-up in patients with upper quadrant pain syndromes including TMD.…”

Systematic Review of Nondrug, Nonsurgical Treatment of Shoulder Conditions

“…There were 77 full-text articles screened (26 SRs and 51 RCTs). Eight were excluded as follows: 1 systematic review was outside the scope of this review (it did not include RCTs of shoulder conditions), 23 leaving 25 SRs; 5 articles designated as RCTs did not actually meet the definition of an RCT (did not test efficacy or did not test between-group differences) [24][25][26][27][28] ; and 2 were outside the scope of our review (1 did not measure patient-based outcomes, 29 and the other was a prognostic study 30 ), leaving 44 RCTs. The research question was clearly defined and the inclusion/exclusion criteria listed in the paper (if "no," then reject).…”

“…15,16,23 These reviews found favorable results suggesting these interventions, mostly highlighting multimodal care, are beneficial for pain and function; however, the results are based on mostly low-level evidence from case reports and series. Although reviews report clinical use of multimodal treatments, a description is still lacking regarding what multi-modal components of chiropractic care are appropriate for specific shoulder conditions.…”