• Andréa Cândido Dos Reis, Thaisa Theodoro de Oliveira, Carla Larissa Vidal, Maria Cristina Borsatto, and Mariana Lima da Costa Valente.
• Altern Ther Health Med. 2021 Mar 1; 27 (2): 22-26.

BackgroundAuricular acupuncture (AA) is a complementary/integrative therapy, and can be used as adjuvant treatment in sleep disorders, anxiety and the painful symptomatology of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs).ObjectiveThe aim of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of AA in reducing the symptoms of sleep disorders, anxiety and TMDs by applying the Fletcher and Luckett, Beck-BAI and RDC/TMD questionnaires: Axis II, respectively.DesignThis was a nonrandomized clinical trial in which AA was administered to patients between the ages of 20 and 45 years from the School of Dentistry at Ribeirão Preto, São Paolo, Brazil, who had at least one of the following: sleep disorder, anxiety or TMD.InterventionMustard seeds were applied to predetermined auricular acupoints including: Shen Men, neurovegetative system (sympathetic), kidney, anxiety, stomach, maxilla and mandible, liver and stress, once a week for 8 weeks.Outcome MeasuresTo analyze the reduction in sleep disorder symptoms, we used the Fletcher and Luckett questionnaire; for anxiety symptoms, the Beck-BAI questionnaire, and for the degree of chronic TMD pain, the RDC/TMD (Axis II) questionnaire.ResultsData on sleep, anxiety and TMD disorders were analyzed via Fisher's exact, Wilcoxon and Chi-Square non-parametric tests (α = 0.05), respectively. Reduction in sleep disorder symptoms after the proposed intervention was verified, showed a statistically significant difference (P = .014). There was a reduction in mean anxiety score and a decrease in painful TMD symptoms, but no significant difference (P = .50; P = .947, respectively) before and after AA.ConclusionIn our study, AA was effective in reducing sleep disorder symptoms and our data suggests some relief of symptoms of anxiety and TMD pain.

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