Clinical effectiveness evaluation of laser therapy and dry needling in treatment of patients with myofascial pain in masseter muscle

Abstract

Myofascial pain is considered a type of muscular TMD, being common in patients with musculoskeletal pain associated with active or latent trigger points. Among the therapeutic options, there are low-intensity laser therapy and dry needling. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of these two therapies in the masseter muscles of patients with myofascial pain. Ten patients diagnosed with myofascial pain, with or without limitation of mouth opening, were randomly divided into two groups for treatment with low intensity laser therapy (G1) (n = 5) or dry needling (G2) (n = 5). The pain symptomatology and the mouth opening measurement were evaluated weekly before the start of treatment, and one week after the final treatment. The comparison between G1 and G2 in relation to the improvement in mouth opening was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). However, dry needling (G2) has shown numerically to be more effective than laser therapy in a shorter period comparing initial and final mouth opening. Regarding the pain symptomatology, both therapies were effective comparing the initial and final evaluations of patients with myofascial pain (p <0.05).