Thirty patients with the temporomandibular disorders were treated with “Kakkonto”, one of the most famous traditional drugs for chronic diseases with pain.“Kakkon-to” was given orally in a dosage of 7.5g 3 times daily before meals for two weeks. Clinical evaluation was carried out at seventh and fourteenth day after administration about spontaneous pain, pain with jaw movement, muscular tenderness, complications, and side effects. These symptoms were rated on a scale of 0 to 3 (0=no symptom and 3=severe). Two cases were dropped because of further administration of another analgesic for severe temporomandibular joint pain. 22 of 28 (78.6%) patients were improved at the therapy completion. 6 cases (21.4%) showed significant improvement, most of those had complications such as stiff shoulder and headache. Side effects were observed in 5 cases, such as slight nausea, vomiting and so on. It is suggested that “Kakkon-to” is a useful drug for temporomandibular disorders.
