ABSTRACT

Introduction: The tempromandibular joint is one of the most complex and powerful structures of the human body. The most important functions of this joint are chewing and speech. The temporomandibular joints function bilaterally therefore deviations in musculoskeletal integrity act bilaterally also and lead to temporomandibular disorder.

Aim: To investigate physiotherapy procedures in patients with temporomandibular disorder.

Materials and methods: Some of the available databases were searched by electronic search, such as: Medline (PubMed, PubMed Central), Bibliographic database. The key words used for the purpose of the search are: physiotherapy for temporomandibular joint disorders and physical therapy of the temporomandibular joint, ie physiotherapy temporomandibular joint dysfunction and physical therapy temporomandibular joint dysfunction.

Results: After the exclusion procedure, 12 original researches, 2 case reports and 6 review articles related to the aim of the research of this paper were used.

Conclusion: Physiotherapy is the best choice as an early conservative treatment in people with temporomandibular disorders. Efficacy has been proven in improving range of motion, increasing mobility and reducing pain with the use of manual therapy (myofascial relaxation, Maitland method), therapeutic exercises, Dry-needling, TENS, ultrasound and therapeutic laser.

Key words: temporomandibular joint, temporomandibular disorder, physiotherapy, manual therapy