Therapeutic and Side Effects of Intra-articular and Intraperitoneal Injections of Corticosteroids on Temporomandibular Joint Inflammation: A Review Study

Background and Objectives This study aims to investigate the therapeutic effects and side effects of intraarticular (IA) and intra-peritoneal (IP) injections of corticosteroids on temporomandibular joint (TMJ) inflammation Subjects and Methods This is a review study that was conducted on related studies published from 1990 to 2022 which were searched in Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, SID, Magiran and IranMedex using the keywords “temporomandibular joint”, “intra-articular injection”, “corticosteroid”, “adverse effects”, “juvenile arthritis”, “osteoarthritis”, “ Juvenile idiopathic arthritis”,”degenerative joint disorders”, and “temporomandibular joint disorders”. Results A total of 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. Two studies were related to IP injection, 8 related to IA injection, two studies compared the effect of IA and IP drug injection, and one study investigated the TMJ arthrocentesis and IP drug injection. In 4 studies, the aim was to compare the effectivness of corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid in improving temporomandibular disorders. Nine studies found that the use of corticosteroids is beneficial for the treatment of TMJ inflammation, and 7 studies reported complications such as condylar resorption. Conclusion Since the use of corticosteroids in treatment of TMJ disorders is not without complications, there is a need to conduct extensive studies on various drugs with anti-inflammatory effects and lowest side effects to replace them with corticosteroids.