Effectiveness of Rocabado’s Exercises on Temporo-mandibular Joint Disorder- A Single Blind Study

Abstract

Background: The temporo-mandibular joint disorder (TMD) is known as a group of conditions characterized by pain in muscles of mastication and the temporo-mandibular joint. Rocabado’s 6 x 6 exercises program means 6 types of exercises, 6 repetitions of exercises and done 6 times in a day. Rocabado’s exercises propose that 6 x 6 exercise program decrease pain and improve function of the masticatory muscles. Purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of Rocabado’s exercises on temporo-mandibular joint disorder, jaw pain, range of motion (ROM) and jaw function limitation for the subjects with TMD. Method: Pre to post test experimental study design was planned. 40 subjects with temporo-mandibular joint disorder were divided in two groups with 20 subjects in study group and 20 subjects in control group, respectively by simple randomized sampling. The study group received Rocabado’s exercises while the control group received conventional temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) exercises. The exercises were performed 6 times in each session for 6 sessions in a day and for 6 days a week. The Rocabado’s exercises were performed for 2 sessions daily under therapist supervision as a group therapy and other 4 sessions were performed at home as per therapist instructions. The outcome measurements such as VAS for pain, TMJ ROM and jaw function limitation score (JFLS) was measured before and after three weeks of intervention. Result: Comparative analysis, using Independent ‘t’ test and Mann Whitney U- test found that the means of VAS, TMJ ROM and JFLS scores showed statistically significant difference (p <0.05) when the pre-intervention means and post-intervention means were compared between two groups. Conclusion: It is concluded that Rocabado’s exercises are found to have statistically and clinically significant effect and has showed a greater percentage of improvements in reducing TMJ disorder symptoms, pain, jaw functional limitation and increased TMJ ROM when compared with only conventional TMJ exercises in subjects with Temporamandibular joint disorder with restricted mouth opening mobility. Key words: Temporo-mandibular joint disorder, jaw pain, jaw clicking, Rocabado’s exercises, TMJ exercises, Jaw function.