Dr. Denitsa Grozdeva
Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria
Title: TEMPOROMANDIBUILAR DISORDERS – INTEGRATIVE PERSPECTIVES
Biography
Biography: Dr. Denitsa Grozdeva
Abstract
Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is a common term including musculoskeletal and neuromuscular pathology. According to various signs and symptoms, TMD are a big challenge to dental practitioners. Physical therapy as a part of treatment protocols is well known to most all clinicians.
Medical University of Varna successfully develops University medical and dental center and University Center of Eastern Medicine. They both are first and only currently in Bulgaria as a bases for combining clinical, scientific and teaching work, and also integrating modern and alternative healthcare.
A 57-old woman visited the Department of physical therapy at University dental center with recommendations of an oral surgeon. She complained of chronic severe sharp pain in the left temporomandibular joint (TMJ), limited mouth opening, difficult chewing and pain in the left ear. The symptoms had been appeared two months after tooth extraction. She also reported neck and low back pain, anxiety, high blood pressure and insomnia. She took 10 days physical therapy programme, including propolis electrophoresis, electrical cervical sympathetic ganglion block and laser puncture of local TMJ acupoints. We used the visual pain analog scale, range of motion measurement and WHOQOL - BREF for assessment of treatment effects. Two weeks after the end of physical therapy we found out an increase in physical domain of quality of life score only. A daily adapted acupuncture scheme was applied for next ten days in combination with propolis sonopuncture of local TMJ acupoints. Two weeks later we achieved a significant improvement in quality of life including physical, psychological and social domains.