Acupuncture vs Massage, For Jaw Release!

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝I was wondering if there have been any studies showing the comparison between Acupuncture for jaw release and using Massage?❞

Thanks for asking! We will start by assuming that you are referring to myofascial release of the temporomandibular joint, and not, say, unhinging your jaw like a snake*.

^{*If you do want to unhinge your jaw like a snake, then a) we do not recommend that b) anecdotally, we may comment that massage can certainly achieve it if sufficiently vigorous, but we hope you’ll forgive us if for legal reasons we don’t write a how-to.}

Silliness aside and addressing the more serious question, the answer is yes there has, albeit not much and the quality of evidence remains low.

First, let’s look at the evidence for massage:

❝Three studies showed significant improvements in headache intensity and frequency following TMJ or orofacial physiotherapy. One study favored the control group, and one showed no significant difference. However, variability in study quality, therapist roles, and poorly reported interventions limited comparability and prevented meta-analysis.❞

Translating from sciencese:

“We don’t know, because we got mixed results and the methodology was sloppy”

You can read the paper in full, here: The effectiveness of physiotherapy for chronic headaches in patients with temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review

And now, let’s look at the evidence for acupuncture:

❝the evidence for acupuncture for TMD management, especially for TMJ and masseter muscles pain, is weak❞

~ this after about 3,000 words detailing the litany of failures in methodology.

You can find the paper itself here: Acupuncture for treating temporomandibular joint disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, sham-controlled trials ← unfortunately, you can’t read this one in full unless you have institutional access or want to buy access from the journal. Failing that, you can trust us that it wasn’t inspiring reading.

Finally, let’s look at the evidence for each when compared head-to-head (so to speak):

❝There was moderate evidence that classical acupuncture had a positive influence beyond those of placebo (three trials, 65 participants); had positive effects similar to those of occlusal splint therapy (three trials, 160 participants); and was more effective for TMD symptoms than physical therapy (four trials, 397 participants), indomethacin plus vitamin B1 (two trials, 85 participants), and a wait-list control (three trials, 138 participants). Only two RCTs addressed adverse events and reported no serious adverse events.❞

Source: Acupuncture for temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review

👆 So this one was the most positive towards acupuncture, but even we were not able to find the full text for this one. It’s not merely paywalled like the previous one (for which we enjoy institutional access and can read it on your behalf), rather this one’s simply not there. All we can find is the abstract, so we cannot comment on the validity of their claims, and can rather only report that those are the claims they make.

In summary:

• Yes, science has been done
• No, it isn’t very compelling

About the best we can say is that if you want to try it, the (admittedly weak) evidence that exists suggests it is quite safe.

Want to learn more?

You might like our main feature on…

How Does One Test Acupuncture Against Placebo Anyway?

Take care!