Rp. Difabio, PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR PATIENTS WITH TMD - A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF TREATMENT, DISABILITY, AND HEALTH-STATUS, Journal of orofacial pain, 12(2), 1998, pp. 124-135
The purposes of this study were to compare disabilities and health sta
tus associated with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) to other musculo
skeletal disorders, to describe the types of physical therapy administ
ered to patients with TMD, and to evaluate health-related qualify of l
ife (HRQOL) as an index of clinical change following physical therapy
treatment. Outcomes for 56 patients (mean age 40 years, SD 13 years; 8
9% female) were evaluated from a large database generated by the Focus
on Therapeutic Outcomes network. A generic assessment of HRQOL-the Me
dical Outcomes Study (MOS) 17-was used to evaluate the physical and me
ntal aspects of disability associated with TMD, and the results were c
ompared descriptively to three groups of patients with different cervi
cal pain syndromes. The results showed that patients with TMD had limi
tations in social function, emotional well-being, and energy level sim
ilar to patients with cervical disorders. Physical function (ie, walki
ng, carrying loads, or lifting), however; was much more limited in cer
vical disorder i patients and bodily pain interfered more with daily w
ork. Large positive effect sizes (> 0.80) in the areas of social funct
ion and bodily pain indicated clinical improvement for patients with T
MD at the completion of physical therapy. The results suggest that the
MOS-17 may be useful as one measure of clinical change for patients w
ith TMD who receive physical therapy.