A prospective randomized study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of
physical therapy in addition to
splint therapy on treatment outcome in patients with
temporomandibular disorders (TMD) with respect to objective and subjective parameters. Twenty-six patients suffering from an arthrogenic TMD and exhibiting a painfully restricted jaw opening were randomized in two groups. Thirteen patients were treated solely with Michigan
splint (group I), 13 patients received supplementary
physical therapy (group II). Before treatment a clinical examination and electronic recording of jaw movements were performed and subjective
pain level was evaluated by visual analogue scales. After 3 months of
therapy maintenance of improvement was evaluated. Within treatment groups comparison of data before and
after treatment was analysed using Wilcoxon test. Groups were compared by Mann-Withney-U test. A P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Compared with the baseline, in both groups mandibular movement capacity increased significantly
after treatment, whereas subjective
pain decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Active jaw opening increased from 28.6 +/- 5.8 to 35.9 +/- 4.8 mm in group I and from 30.1 +/- 5.4 to 40.8 +/- 4.1 mm in group II. After
therapy the difference of active jaw opening between groups was significant (P < 0.05).
Physical therapy also gave a supplementary improvement of protrusive mandibular movement capacity during electronic registration and subjective
pain level. For none of these parameters this difference between groups was significant.
Physical therapy seems to have a positive effect on treatment outcome of patients with TMD.