Treatment Principles

Since we almost never know the real reason for a patient’s CMD symptoms, the treatment is not causally directed at the actual source of the symptoms but is symptomatically directed at alleviating the symptoms. It has been shown that using several very different treatment procedures can be effective, just like with any other musculoskeletal pain. These range from acupuncture, behavioral therapy, drugs and occlusal splints to physiotherapy and numerous other therapy measures.

With this in mind, simple, non-invasive, reversible and cost-effective therapies are generally preferred for the treatment of pain. These principles should also be followed for CMD treatment. At the same time, it is important to use those kinds of therapy preferably that demand active participation from the patient, because the autonomously and self-reliantly acting patient has better healing chances than the one who suffers passively. As is always the case in pain treatment, invasive, non-reversible and elaborate forms of treatment should only be used when their use is unavoidable for special reasons.