Treatment of temporomandibular dysfunction with jaw functional orthopedics: a retrospective study

What are my chances of getting better?” And “How long will it take for the discomfort to improve?” are the two basic questions asked by individuals after they know about the influence of the stomatognathic system (SS) on their discomfort. Despite the biological unpredictability and variation, these individuals need some information. When searching in MEDLINE, some parameters may be found, but there are none about Jaw Functional Orthopedics (JFO). This study sample was composed of 146 patients with TMD and/or headache/neck pains, who were treated with JFO and divided into three groups. Group 1 exclusively with TMD; Group 2 with head and/or neck pain without symptoms of TMD (pain on palpation or movement); and Group 3 with TMD and head/neck pain. The symptoms monitored were arthralgia, and myalgia of the temporal, masseter or suprahyoid muscles, neck pain on movement or palpation, headache and cervicalgia reported. Odontogenic pain and headache originating from other sources (sinusitis, flu, pre-menstrual period, photophobia, hangover, etc.) were excluded from the study. The sample was aligned with the literature relative to prevalence of age and sex. Results showed that JFO treatment was effective in patients of the three groups. There was no statistical difference in mean time for remission among the groups. The results and conclusions should be analyzed with caution since there was no control group, and long term follow up is needed to check the behavior of the symptoms. However, the data from this study suggested that JFO was an efficient tool for treatment of patients with occlusal and biomechanical alterations of the SS, with chronic TMD, head and/or neck pain in a short period of time.