Acupuncture treatment performed before orthodontic
therapy markedly reduced post-adjustment pain in patients with fixed
appliances, according to a report published in the Dental Press Journal of
Orthodontics.
It has been acknowledged that dental therapy including
orthodontic treatment, even if analgesic and anaesthetic medication are used,
by most people, cause pain or even light distress. Considering high rate of
patients complaining about pain suffered during orthodontic therapy, different
methods have been considered for its pain control, such as Lower-power laser
application, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation etc. However, the
results in many cases are not satisfactory.
Doctor Boleta-Ceranto and colleagues in Brazil carried
out small clinical study, performed acupuncture before orthodontic adjustment in
orthodontic patients to assess its pain control effect. Eleven patients with
fixed appliance who needed monthly adjustment were treated acupuncture at
acupoints LI4 and ST6 for 20 mins before orthodontic adjustments. Analogue
Visual Scare was used to measure the level of pain three months without
acupuncture and 3 months following acupuncture treatment.
It was found that acupuncture treatment produced a
statistically significant reduction in pain level index for all patients. No
incidence was reported.
The study concluded that acupuncture is a safe and
effective treatment in reducing pain caused by orthodontic post-adjustment
procedure.
Reference:
Boleta-Ceranto et
al., Orthodontic post-adjustment pain control with acupuncture. Dental Press J.
Orthod. vol.19 no.4 Maringá July/Aug. 2014. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S2176-94512014000400100&script=sci_arttext
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