2020 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 113-120
Recently, mouth-opening exercises have been recognized as an effective treatment for limited mouth-opening in cases of temporomandibular disorder (TMD), but have not become universal. This is because some problems remain, for example, a standard protocol for mouth-opening exercises has not yet been established in Japan. In addition, it is relatively difficult to manage the treatment as patients should do it by themselves.
Protrusive sliding movement of the mandibular condyle is often inhibited in patients with limited mouth-opening, so it is considered important to restore this condylar movement to increase the mouth-opening. Therefore, it is thought that inducing sliding movement of the mandibular condyle is essential for effective rehabilitation of the jaw.
Here we describe the concept of effective mouth-opening exercises to restore joint mobility for treating limited mouth-opening of TMD.
