TMJ Association, Ltd.

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Online TMD Diet Diary Research Project

Online TMD Diet Diary Research Project The TMJ Association received the following request from Professor Justin Durham and his research team at Newcastle University. We encourage TMJ patients to participate in this project as it is an under researched

Drug Induced Bruxism

The authors of this article state that orofacial movement disorders (bruxism) are treated typically by dental professionals and not by those specialists (neurologists) researching and treating the other movement disorders (Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, tremors, etc.). Again, this is more evidence of the complexity of TMD and the need for multidisciplinary research and treatment in TMD.

Cervical Muscle Tenderness in Temporomandibular Disorders and Its Associations with Diagnosis, Disease-Related Outcomes, and Comorbid Pain Conditions

To analyze cervical tenderness scores (CTS) in patients with various temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and in controls and to examine associations of CTS with demographic and clinical parameters.

You, Your Esophagus and TMD

The esophagus is a roughly ten-inch hollow tube that descends from your throat through the diaphragm into the stomach. Normally, it is a one-way street transporting food you swallow to the stomach for digestion. But in GERD— Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease— the flow can reverse so that stomach contents (including gastric acids) are regurgitated upwards to cause a burning sensation (heartburn), nausea, pain and other distressing symptoms.

It's Time to Be Part of the Solution

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Study on Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) is well underway. We strongly encourage everyone affected by TMD to write to the NAM committee letting them know what it is like to live with TMD and your experiences with getting care.

Biofeedback

  • Dec 6, 2019

The Latest In Science on Biofeedback

Efficacy of biofeedback-based treatments for temporomandibular disorders.
Crider A, Glaros AG, Gevirtz RN.
Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2005 Dec;30(4):333-45.
Bibliographic searches identified 14 controlled and uncontrolled outcome evaluations of biofeedback-based treatments for temporomandibular disorders published since 1978. This literature includes two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of each of three types of biofeedback treatment: (1) surface electromyographic (SEMG) training of the masticatory muscles, (2) SEMG training combined with adjunctive cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, and (3) biofeedback-assisted relaxation training (BART). A detailed review of these six RCTs, supplemented with information from non-RCT findings, was conducted to determine the extent to which each type of intervention met treatment efficacy criteria promulgated by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB). We conclude that SEMG training with adjunctive CBT is an
efficacious treatment for temporomandibular disorders and that both SEMG training as the sole intervention and BART are probably efficacious treatments. We discuss guidelines for designing and reporting research in this area and suggest possible directions for future studies.

A meta-analysis of EMG biofeedback treatment of temporomandibular disorders.
Crider AB, Glaros AG. J Orofac Pain. 1999 Winter;13(1):29-37.
AIMS: Outcome evaluations of treatments incorporating electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback for temporomandibular disorders (TMD) have been conducted for more than 2 decades. The purpose of this study was to review the available literature to determine the efficacy of biofeedback-based treatments and to estimate treatment effect sizes. METHODS: A literature search located 13 studies of EMG biofeedback treatment for TMD, including 6 controlled, 4 comparative treatment, and 3 uncontrolled trials. Three types of outcome were examined: patient pain reports, clinical exam findings, and ratings of global improvement. RESULTS: Five of the 6 controlled trials found EMG biofeedback treatments to be superior to no treatment or psychologic placebo controls for at least 1 of the 3 types of outcome. Data from 12 studies contributed to a meta-analysis that compared pre- to posttreatment effect sizes for EMG biofeedback treatments to effect sizes for control conditions. Mean effect sizes for both reported pain and clinical exam outcomes were substantially larger for biofeedback treatments than for control conditions. In addition, 69% of patients who received EMG biofeedback treatments were rated as symptom-free or significantly improved, compared with 35% of patients treated with a variety of placebo interventions. Follow-up outcomes for EMG biofeedback treatments showed no deterioration from posttreatment levels.