Effectiveness Of Acupuncture In The Management Of Patients With Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: A Pilot Study

Background: Acupuncture is one of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It is widely used in the management of pain. Temporomandibular joint disorders symptoms include chronic orofacial pain, trismus, clicking. The main aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in the management of patients with temporomandibular joint disorders Methods: This study was conducted in the department of Oral Medicine and Radiology with the sample size of 6 patients in the time period of January 2021-February 2021. Each patient was subjected to three 20-minute needle therapy acupuncture session, once a week. Pain was measured by the visual analog scale (VAS) during each visit. Results: Kruskalwallis test was used to find the difference between mean values of VAS scores between three follow-ups. Level of significance was set at p value less than 0.05. Based on the statistical analysis it was found that mean of third visit VAS was significantly lower than mean of first visit VAS in 4 patients, with one drop out. There was no improvement of VAS in one patient Conclusion: Results of this pilot study show that acupuncture sessions were effective in four patients in which pain intensity is reduced when comparing to their first session. No adverse reactions were evident during the period of study