Effectiveness of combining manual therapy and acupuncture on temporomandibular joint dysfunction: A retrospective study

This retrospective study investigated the effects of combining manual therapy and acupuncture on the pain and maximal mouth opening (MMO), which were associated with temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD). The 49 TMD patients (15 men, 34 women; mean age = 30.47 years, SD = 13.52 years) were treated with a combination of acupuncture and manual therapy two or three times a week at the hospital. The pain and maximal mouth opening were assessed before and after 1 and 4 weeks of treatment. The combination therapy produced significant changes in pain levels (p < 0.001) and mouth opening (p < 0.001). All pairwise non-parametric comparison showed a significant improvement in pain (p < 0.05 for all pairs) and MMO (p < 0.05 for all pairs). These findings suggest that combining manual therapy and acupuncture decreases the pain level and increases the MMO of TMD patients. However, future studies should further investigate the efficacy of combined treatment on TMD with more rigorous randomized clinical trials.