ORAL HEALTH EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE PROGRAM
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Title Performing Masticatory Muscle Relaxation Exercises Provides a Significant Reduction in TMD Symptoms
Clinical Question For adult TMD patients, does performing masticatory muscle relaxation exercises reduce TMD symptoms more than no treatment?
Clinical Bottom Line For adult patients with temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), performing relaxation exercises for the masticatory muscles is beneficial in reducing TMD symptoms. This is supported by a randomized control study where it was noted that masticatory relaxation exercises provided a significant reduction in the TMD symptoms compared to no treatment.
Best Evidence (you may view more info by clicking on the PubMed ID link)
PubMed ID Author / Year Patient Group Study type
(level of evidence)
#1) 24259807Bae/201341 Adult patients with TMD Randomized Controlled Trial
Key results“Both the active exercise group and the masticatory muscle relaxation exercise group showed statistically very significant improvement (p<0.01), but there were no changes in the no treatment group. In the comparison of the three groups, the active exercise, masticatory relaxation exercise and no treatment group all showed a significant difference in variance (p<0.01). The deviation caused by the asymmetry of motion on both sides of the joint exhibited a statistically significant change between the pre- and post-test in the masticatory muscle relaxation exercise group (p<0.01). The deviation also showed a statistically significant difference in the comparison between the active exercise and masticatory muscle relaxation exercise group (p<0.01). This result confirmed that the masticatory muscle relaxation exercise was more effective for deviation.”
Evidence Search Masticator[All Fields] AND ("muscle relaxation"[MeSH Terms] OR ("muscle"[All Fields] AND "relaxation"[All Fields]) OR "muscle relaxation"[All Fields]) AND ("exercise"[MeSH Terms] OR "exercise"[All Fields]) AND ("temporomandibular joint dysfunction syndrome"[MeSH Terms] OR ("temporomandibular"[All Fields] AND "joint"[All Fields] AND "dysfunction"[All Fields] AND "syndrome"[All Fields]) OR "temporomandibular joint dysfunction syndrome"[All Fields] OR ("temporomandibular"[All Fields] AND "joint"[All Fields] AND "dysfunction"[All Fields]) OR "temporomandibular joint dysfunction"[All Fields])
Comments on
The Evidence
Validity: The study randomized 41 patients, 10 men and 31 women in their 20s and 30s, into three groups. The first group performed relaxation exercises in which the patients placed their tongue firmly resting on the roof of their mouth for as long as possible. The second group performed active exercises where they slowly opened their mouth, holding it open for 5-10 seconds, and repeating it for 10 minutes 3 or more times a day. The last group was a no-treatment control group. Only 1 of the patients didn’t complete the study, so 40 patients were reevaluated after 4 weeks with the first two groups (those performing the masticatory relaxation exercises and active exercises) having significant reduction in their TMD symptoms. Both pre- and post treatment evaluations and measurements were done by investigators who were not blinded, so there could be potential bias in the results.
Applicability The subjects in this study were not representative of any particular population, other than having TMD symptoms. This study concluded that performing masticatory muscle relaxation exercises provided significant relief in TMD symptoms. Relaxation exercises provide the patient with a noninvasive, no-cost treatment to reduce their TMD symptoms by giving them exercises they could learn how to do and perform on their own time.
Specialty/Discipline (General Dentistry)
Keywords Masticator muscle; Relaxation exercise; Temporomandibular joint disorder
ID# 3242
Date of submission: 04/24/2017spacer
E-mail regans@livemail.uthscsa.edu
Author Stephen Regan
Co-author(s)
Co-author(s) e-mail
Faculty mentor/Co-author Edward F. Wright, DDS, MS
Faculty mentor/Co-author e-mail WrightE2@uthscsa.edu
Basic Science Rationale
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