Western State University of Paraná - Physical Therapy School - Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil.
Department of Restorative Dentistry, Western State University of Paraná - Dental School, Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil.
Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2022 Aug;48:101569. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101569. Epub 2022 Apr 12.
This study evaluated the effect of auricular acupuncture (AA) on physical (PA) and emotional (EA) aspects of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and compared the effect of AA with those of Sham and occlusal splints (OS). In accordance with the CONSORT guidelines, patients with TMDs were evaluated by axes I and II of the RDC-TMD. The patients were allocated among three groups: OS, Sham and AA; and followed for 8 weeks. Both intragroup and intergroup evaluation for quantitative variables were analyzed with ANOVA, one-way, followed by the Tukey test. Qualitative variables were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis, and Dunn tests (intergroup evaluation) and for intragroup analyses, the Friedman and Wilcoxon tests were applied. At the end of the experiment, the chi-squared test was applied to compare the three groups with respect to the number of variables that had shown improved scores. The adopted level of significance for all tests was α = 5%. Intragroup analysis showed that, in the Sham group, no improvement in performance was seen in either EA and significant was improvements in 5 variables for 9 for PA, while in the AA group, significant improvements were observed in 2 variables for EA and in 9 for PA. In the OS group at the end of this study, significant improvements were observed in 8 and 8 variables for EA and PA, respectively. The analysis of therapies used revealed that the number of variables exhibiting significantly improved outcomes after treatment was similar between the AA and OS groups, whereas the sham group showed statistically significant differences when compared with the other two groups. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that AA applied at a specific TMJ ear point was able to bring about improvements in patients with TMDs, with outcomes similar to those in patients treated with an OS. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: RBR-69ynnw (Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials).
这项研究评估了耳针（AA）对颞下颌关节紊乱症（TMD）患者身体（PA）和情绪（EA）方面的影响，并比较了 AA 与假治疗和咬合夹板（OS）的效果。根据 CONSORT 指南，通过 RDC-TMD 的 I 轴和 II 轴对 TMD 患者进行评估。患者被分配到三个组：OS、假治疗和 AA，并随访 8 周。对定量变量进行组内和组间评估均采用方差分析，单向，然后是 Tukey 检验。定性变量采用 Kruskal-Wallis 和 Dunn 检验（组间评估），组内分析采用 Friedman 和 Wilcoxon 检验。实验结束时，应用卡方检验比较三组中显示评分改善的变量数量。所有测试的显著性水平均为α=5%。组内分析显示，在假治疗组中，EA 没有改善，而 PA 有 5 个变量显著改善，9 个变量显著改善，而在 AA 组中，EA 有 2 个变量显著改善，PA 有 9 个变量显著改善。在 OS 组中，在研究结束时，EA 和 PA 分别有 8 个和 8 个变量显著改善。对所使用疗法的分析表明，在治疗后显示出明显改善的变量数量在 AA 和 OS 组之间相似，而假治疗组与其他两组相比具有统计学显著差异。总之，这项研究表明，在特定的 TMJ 耳部穴位应用 AA 能够改善 TMD 患者的病情，与使用 OS 治疗的患者的结果相似。临床试验注册：RBR-69ynnw（巴西临床试验注册）。
