OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article was to assess the clinical evidence for or against acupuncture and acupuncture-like therapies as treatments for temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). DATA: This systematic review includes randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture as a treatment for TMD compared to sham acupuncture. The search terms were selected according to medical subject heading (MeSH). SOURCES: Systematic searches were conducted in 13 electronic databases up to July 2010; Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane Library 2010 (issue 7), CINAHL, Embase, seven Korean Medical Databases and a Chinese Medical Database. STUDY SELECTION: All parallel or cross-over RCTs of acupuncture for TMD were searched without language restrictions. Studies in which no clinical data and complex interventions were excluded. Finally, total of 7 RCTs met our inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that the evidence for acupuncture as a symptomatic treatment of TMD is limited. Further rigorous studies are, however, required to establish beyond doubt whether acupuncture has therapeutic value for this indication.

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A brief summary and a critical assessment of this review may be available at DARE