Manual Therapy combined with education and home exercises

Splint Therapy combined with education and home exercises

Patient education directed at parafunctional behaviors was given, and an exercise program was taught, with all the patients instructed to perform these exercises at home. The home exercise program included diaphragmatic breathing exercises, chin-tuck exercises, mandibular resistance exercises, and neck muscle stretching exercises. The patients were instructed to perform the exercises as 3 sets of 10 repetitions per day.

In addition to the patient education and home exercises, the Manual Therapy group received a manual therapy program applied as 2 sessions of 45 mins each week for 4 weeks (total 8 sessions) by an investigator. Soft tissue and joint mobilizations were applied to the TMJ and surrounding structures and to cervical segments, trigger point treatment was applied to trigger points, and myofascial loosening was performed. Patients were instructed to perform the exercises learned in the home exercise program in 3 sets of 10 repetitions every day.

Pain severity was measured with a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), marked from 0 to 10, where 0 indicates no pain and 10 indicates intolerable pain. The patients were instructed to mark the scale corresponding to the severity of pain felt.

Fatigue level was measured with the Fatigue Severity Scale, where patients were asked to indicate their levels of agreement with a 0-7 scale indicating "0" strong disagreement and "7" strong agreement at a total of 9 questions. A sum of all responses was calculated for analysis. Sixty-three was the maximum score. The higher value represented a higher level of fatigue.

The sleep quality of patients was analyzed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The PSQI includes 24 items related to both daytime and nocturnal sleep. The responses were scored from 0-3, as 7 subscores to give a global score of total points in the range of 0-21. A score of ≥5 indicated poor sleep quality.

Jaw function limitation was measured by the Jaw Functional Limitation Scale-20 (JFLS-20) where the patients asked for from 1 to 10 points per item (higher scores indicate worse jaw function). The JFLS-20 has 3 subscales: Mastication (6 items), Vertical Jaw Mobility (4 items), and Emotional and Verbal Expression (10 items).

Neck Disability Index, consists of 10 items. Individuals included in the study were asked to give a score between 0 (no disability) and 5 (complete disability) for each item. The total score varies between 0 (no disability) and 50 (complete disability).

Head posture is defined as the craniovertebral angle. It is the angle formed by the intersection of a horizontal line along the spinous process of C7 and the line drawn towards the ear tragus. A craniovertebral angle of <48-50° is accepted as an anterior tilt of the head.