Invasive carboxytherapy effectiveness in the treatment of painful temporomandibular joint dysfunction

Relevance. Today, more than 15-20% of patients suffer from chronic pain in painful temporomandibular joint disorder. Temporomandibular arthralgias are poorly treatable, excruciating, and often recurrent. Therefore, optimization of treatment is paramount in such patients.Aim: To evaluate the invasive carboxytherapy effectiveness for the treatment of pain syndrome in the temporomandibular joint.Materials and methods. The study diagnosed 33 patients (15 men and 18 women) aged 28 to 47 years old suffering from pain syndrome in the temporomandibular joint. Group 1 (control) patients (12 patients) received indomethacin tablets (25 mg/tid) for nine days [8]. The second (main) group (21 patients) had invasive carboxytherapy, which consisted of a 3 ml carbon dioxide subcutaneous injection administered five times every other day. The study evaluated the therapeutic effect persistence on the 15th day of observation.Results. The invasive carboxytherapy proved to be more effective in pain syndrome relief in painful TMJ dysfunction than indomethacin prescription. The invasive carboxytherapy was 12.02%, 9.17% and 4.29% more effective than the NSAID on the 3 rd, 9th and 15th day of observation, respectively.Conclusion. The invasive carboxytherapy is highly effective in relieving pain symptoms in pain dysfunction, which was 44.9% on the 3rd day, 83.5% – on the 9th day, and 100% – on the 15th day of observation. The advantages of carboxytherapy were noted, namely, its good tolerability with a small number of contraindications related to the general state of health, as well as the condition of the skin at the injection site. It is possible to use invasive carboxytherapy in the comprehensive treatment of patients with painful temporomandibular joint di sorder.