Physiotherapy & Physical Rehabilitation

A female woman, 29 years old, physiotherapist suffering from temporomandibular disorders since, she was 17 years old. She referred pain, functional disorders of the masticatory system, temporomandibular joint and masticatory muscles. She has completed five sessions of therapeutic treatment that includes stretching exercises, passive and active range of motion exercises and strengthening exercises. Each type of exercise was performed for the duration of six seconds and repeated 10 times. She improved but she was still having limitation to open her mouth in her left temporomandibular joint. After consultation with a specialist, he recommended a magnetic resonance. This magnetic resonance showed a temporomandibular disorder type I. She was referred again to rehabilitation service, she performed the same treatment and her physiotherapist added a low intensity ultrasound. After 10 sessions she felt better, her range of motion was increased, her masticatory muscles were relaxed and the pain decreased. It is important to follow this patient, to know how long she keeps the results in order to offer her the best and more complete treatment for her pathology. We can conclude that low intensity ultrasound with manual therapy helps to improve the range of motion, pain and to keep free the temporomandibular joint. It is important to apply a correct treatment to obtain long term results. More studies with more sample size are needed to confirm this hypothesis.