Effectiveness of cervical spine manual therapy in the management of temporomandibular joint disorders: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a complex condition involving temporomandibular joint (TMJ), masticatory muscles, and adjoining myofascial structures. In the present review, we attempted to evaluate the manual cervical therapy (MT) effect in reducing TMJ pain of myogenous origin and increasing mandibular range of motion (ROM) in TMD cases in relevance to the duration of therapy and posttherapy follow-up period. Materials and Methods: English language manuscripts using PUBMED/MEDLINE, COCHRANE, EMBASE, CINAHLPlus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CDR, and PEDro databases were accessed between January 01, 2011, and January 2021. Following PRISMA guidelines, eight articles met the inclusion criteria. Results: The analysis included 383 patients with TMD, primarily women aged ±27 (18–72) years. Employing varied techniques of manual cervical therapies, the reviewed RCT results demonstrated either immediate or short-term effectiveness in orofacial pain reduction and improvement in jaw function. Conclusion: This review presented the short-term effectiveness of cervical manual therapy and limited high-quality evidence determining the optimal procedure of cervical manual therapy approaches and duration of the session provided to treat cases with TMD of myogenous origin.

Keywords

• cervical manual therapy
• mandibular range of motion
• myogenous-temporomandibular joint disorder
• temporomandibular joint disorder