When you’re suffering from TMJ pain or a full-blown TM Joint Disorder (TMD)with its tangle of headfacejawneck and shoulder paingetting rid of that pain is always the first priority. Ideallythis is accompanied by treatment of what’s causing the pain so that it stops.
The easiest thing to doof courseis to take drugs to mask the painbut this measure is stop-gap at bestpotentially expensive and not conducive to true health. Consequentlya good number of people opt not to go that route and instead turn to any number of nontoxic therapies for pain-reduction.
One of the most commonly used is acupuncturewhich is the focus of a new study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. For itresearchers reviewed studies in four different databasesselecting only those studies published in scientific journals between 1997 and 2008 that used randomized controlled trialsacupuncture treatment and subjects with TMD of muscular origin. Four studies were found to be acceptableand of thosethree demonstrated “short-term improvement of TMD signs and symptoms of muscular origin.” The remaining study showed no significant difference between acupuncture and sham treatment.
These are promising resultsbut of course limitedboth in terms of understanding acupuncture’s long-term effects and the relative lack of research.
Clearlymore work needs to be done in this areaeven as other research continues to provide evidence that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for all sorts of pain.
For instanceanother recent meta-analysis – this one published in Pain Practice – reviewed eight eligible studies published between 2003 and 2008 on acupuncture for chronic pain. The authors found that
For short-term outcomesacupuncture showed significant superiority over sham for back painknee painand headache. For longer-term outcomes (6 to12 months)acupuncture was significantly more effective for knee pain and tension-type headache but inconsistent for back pain (one positive and one inconclusive). In generaleffect sizes (standardized mean differences) were found to be relatively small.
Thusthey conclude that“The accumulating evidence from recent reviews suggests that acupuncture is more than a placebo for commonly occurring chronic pain conditions. If this conclusion is correctthen we ask the question: is it now time to shift research priorities away from asking placebo-related questions and shift toward asking more practical questions…?”
In light of thisas well as other exciting research showing the effects of acupuncture on the brain – specificallythose areas that process pain – we say“Absolutely.”
When you’re suffering from TMJ pain or a full-blown TM Joint Disorder (TMD)with its tangle of headfacejawneck and shoulder paingetting rid of that pain is always the first priority. Ideallythis is accompanied by treatment of what’s causing the pain so that it stops.
The easiest thing to doof courseis to take drugs to mask the painbut this measure is stop-gap at bestpotentially expensive and not conducive to true health. Consequentlya good number of people opt not to go that route and instead turn to any number of nontoxic therapies for pain-reduction.
One of the most commonly used is acupuncturewhich is the focus of a new study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. For itresearchers reviewed studies in four different databasesselecting only those studies published in scientific journals between 1997 and 2008 that used randomized controlled trialsacupuncture treatment and subjects with TMD of muscular origin. Four studies were found to be acceptableand of thosethree demonstrated “short-term improvement of TMD signs and symptoms of muscular origin.” The remaining study showed no significant difference between acupuncture and sham treatment.
These are promising resultsbut of course limitedboth in terms of understanding acupuncture’s long-term effects and the relative lack of research.
Clearlymore work needs to be done in this areaeven as other research continues to provide evidence that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for all sorts of pain.
For instanceanother recent meta-analysis – this one published in Pain Practice – reviewed eight eligible studies published between 2003 and 2008 on acupuncture for chronic pain. The authors found that
Thusthey conclude that“The accumulating evidence from recent reviews suggests that acupuncture is more than a placebo for commonly occurring chronic pain conditions. If this conclusion is correctthen we ask the question: is it now time to shift research priorities away from asking placebo-related questions and shift toward asking more practical questions…?”
In light of thisas well as other exciting research showing the effects of acupuncture on the brain – specificallythose areas that process pain – we say“Absolutely.”
Filed under: acupuncturepainTMJ Tagged: acupuncturechronic painJournal of Alternative and Complementary MedicinepainPain PracticeTMDTMJ