Sajedi Seyed Masoud, Abbasi Farid, Asnaashari Mohammad, Jafarian Ali Akbar
Oral Medicine Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.
Laser Application in Medical Sciences Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Galen Med J. 2022 Aug 29;11:1-13. doi: 10.31661/gmj.v11i.2305. eCollection 2022.
Myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome (MPDS) is among the most common causes of facial pain. This study compared the efficacy of low-level laser (LLL) acupuncture and cupping for the treatment of MPDS. This double-blind, before-after, randomized clinical trial evaluated 60 MPDS patients that were divided into two groups for LLL acupuncture (808 nm, 0.5 W, 30 J, 4 J/cm energy density, 60 seconds; group 1), and cupping (group 2) of masticatory muscle trigger points. Both treatments were performed for maximally eight sessions once every other day. The level of pain at the trigger points was measured upon admission, before and 5 minutes after treatment in each session, at ten days, and two months after treatment completion by a visual analog scale (VAS). The painless maximum mouth opening (MMO) and patient satisfaction with treatment were also assessed at the time as mentioned earlier points. Averagely, 4.5 treatment sessions were required to achieve a 50% reduction in VAS pain score, with no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.9). Both treatments significantly decreased the number of trigger points and pain score, but this reduction occurred significantly sooner in the cupping group (P=0.01). MMO significantly improved in both groups after treatment with no significant difference between them (P=0.2). Patients were significantly more satisfied with LLL acupuncture (P=0.05). Both cupping and LLL acupuncture are equally effective for MPDS; thus, the patient can choose the type of treatment after receiving sufficient information regarding the two modalities.
肌筋膜疼痛功能障碍综合征（MPDS）是面部疼痛最常见的病因之一。本研究比较了低强度激光针刺和拔罐治疗MPDS的疗效。这项双盲、前后对照、随机临床试验评估了60例MPDS患者，将其分为两组，分别接受低强度激光针刺（808纳米，0.5瓦，30焦耳，4焦耳/平方厘米能量密度，60秒；第1组）和咀嚼肌触发点拔罐（第2组）治疗。两种治疗均每隔一天进行一次，最多进行8次。在入院时、每次治疗前及治疗后5分钟、治疗完成后10天和2个月，通过视觉模拟量表（VAS）测量触发点的疼痛程度。在上述时间点还评估了无痛最大开口度（MMO）和患者对治疗的满意度。平均而言，需要4.5次治疗才能使VAS疼痛评分降低50%，两组之间无显著差异（P = 0.9）。两种治疗均显著减少了触发点数量和疼痛评分，但拔罐组疼痛评分降低出现得明显更早（P = 0.01）。两组治疗后MMO均显著改善，两组之间无显著差异（P = 0.2）。患者对低强度激光针刺的满意度显著更高（P = 0.05）。拔罐和低强度激光针刺治疗MPDS同样有效；因此，患者在获得关于这两种治疗方式的充分信息后可以选择治疗类型。
