• J Am Dent Assoc · Feb 2000

    Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial

    Usefulness of posture training for patients with temporomandibular disorders.

    • E F Wright, M A Domenech, and J R Fischer.
    • U.S. Air Force, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, USA.
    • J Am Dent Assoc. 2000 Feb 1; 131 (2): 202-10.

    BackgroundMany practitioners have found that posture training has a positive impact on temporomandibular, or TMD, symptoms. The authors conducted a study to evaluate its effectiveness.MethodsSixty patients with TMD and a primary muscle disorder were randomized into two groups: one group received posture training and TMD self-management instructions while the control group received TMD self-management instructions only. Four weeks after the study began, the authors reexamined the subjects for changes in symptoms, pain-free opening and pressure algometer pain thresholds. In addition, pretreatment and posttreatment posture measurements were recorded for subjects in the treatment group.ResultsStatistically significant improvement was demonstrated by the modified symptom severity index, maximum pain-free opening and pressure algometer threshold measurements, as well as by the subjects' perceived TMD and neck symptoms. Subjects in the treatment group reported having experienced a mean reduction in TMD and neck symptoms of 41.9 and 38.2 percent, respectively, while subjects in the control group reported a mean reduction in these symptoms of 8.1 and 9.3 percent. Within the treatment group, the authors found significant correlations between improvements in TMD symptoms and improvements in neck symptoms (P < .005) as well as between TMD symptom improvement and the difference between head and shoulder posture measurements at the outset of treatment (P < .05).ConclusionsPosture training and TMD self-management instructions are significantly more effective than TMD self-management instructions alone for patients with TMD who have a primary muscle disorder.Practice ImplicationsPatients with TMD who hold their heads farther forward relative to the shoulders have a high probability of experiencing symptom improvement as a result of posture training and being provided with selfmanagement instructions.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…