Effectiveness of conservative treatment for craniomandibular disorders: a 2-year longitudinal study.

The severity of symptoms of craniomandibular disorders was studied during a 2-year period in 195 patients treated with conservative therapeutic schemes. Results revealed a continuing improvement and a statistically significant tendency for the great majority of patients to become asymptomatic or show a decrease in the severity of symptoms. By the end of the 2 years, 66.7% of the patients were symptom free, 25.6% presented with slight symptomatology, and 3.1% were recorded with a fluctuating recurrence of symptoms. This investigation provided the data to develop an exponential model for the hypothesis that stabilization of effectiveness of conservative treatment is achieved between 6 months and 1 year after the initiation of treatment.