“Prolotherapy” for Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction

You might have seen advertisements for “prolotherapy” — injection of an irritant substance to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain. A presumed mechanism is stimulation of a beneficial proliferative cellular reaction in the involved area, although neural mechanisms also have been proposed. Several small studies have suggested that prolotherapy with hypertonic dextrose might be helpful for temporomandibular dysfunction.

In this double-blind randomized trial from British Columbia, researchers identified 42 patients with chronic temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction. Patients received either 20% dextrose plus lidocaine or lidocaine alone, injected into the temporomandibular joint three times at monthly intervals. At baseline, the mean pain …