Effect of acupuncture treatment on temporomandibular disorders

Questionnaire and acupuncture treatment for university students

Abstract

[Purpose]The reason is uncertain though it is assumed that to young people that there are a lot of Temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Then, the questionnaire survey concerning the mandible function was administered for university students, and the clinical trial of the acupuncture treatment that used sham acupuncture for the one where the problem was seen in the mandible function was tried.
[Method]We questioned students at Meiji University of Integrative Medicine by answer selection type concerning the mandible function. The acupuncture treatment was done on 16 students (21.5 ± 1.7 years old;mean ±S.D.) who had problems in the mandible function. The group was divided into two groups (the acupuncture group and the sham acupuncture group) at random. Each group received five acupuncture treatment sessions several times week in total. Outcome measures were pain intensity (visual analogue scale) and function of jaw (mouth opening and muscle power). Each evaluation was assumed to be done before beginning the treatment, and the effect of treatment was assumed to be the one evaluated as a therapeutic gain after one week.
[Result]University students who had some problem in the mandible function were 50%or more of the whole, and a lot of problems were joint noises. On the other hand, the acupuncture group was 67.1 ± 19.1 mm and the sham group was 65.6 ± 15.2 mm. Both groups showed reduction tendencies as the acupuncture group was 9.3± 7.8 mm and the sham group was 40.5 ± 16.7 mm. The acupuncture group reported less pain intensity than the sham acupuncture group (p = 0.0152, Mann-Whitney). However, the true and sham acupuncture groups did not change the function of the jaw.
[Conclusion]A lot of university students who had mandible function problems were unexpectedly regarded as necessary to treat at the early stage. On the other hand, these results suggest that true acupuncture procedures may be more effective on TMD in young patients than sham acupuncture procedures.