Objective: The aim of this article was to assess the clinical evidence for or against acupuncture and acupuncture-like therapies as treatments for temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD).
Data: This systematic review includes randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture as a treatment for TMD compared to sham acupuncture. The search terms were selected according to medical subject heading (MeSH).
Sources: Systematic searches were conducted in 13 electronic databases up to July 2010; Medline, PubMed, The Cochrane Library 2010 (Issue 7), CINAHL, EMBASE, seven Korean Medical Databases and a Chinese Medical Database.
Study selection: All parallel or cross-over RCTs of acupuncture for TMD were searched without language restrictions. Studies in which no clinical data and complex interventions were excluded. Finally, total of 7 RCTs met our inclusion criteria.
Conclusions: In conclusion, our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that the evidence for acupuncture as a symptomatic treatment of TMD is limited. Further rigorous studies are, however, required to establish beyond doubt whether acupuncture has therapeutic value for this indication.
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