2020 Cosmetics

Both facial acupuncture and facial exercises have the potential to improve the skin laxity, wrinkle length, muscle thickness, and pigmentary changes associated with aging.

While injectables, lasers, and surgical interventions have traditionally been used to reverse the changes associated with facial aging, other alternative therapies such as facial acupuncture and facial exercises are now being studied for facial rejuvenation. In this paper, we both summarize the concepts of facial acupuncture and facial exercises, and review seven studies that evaluate the efficacy of these modalities. Data from these studies suggest that both facial acupuncture and facial exercises have the potential to improve the skin laxity, wrinkle length, muscle thickness, and pigmentary changes associated with aging. Patients frequently reported improvement and experienced very few side effects. However, further research is necessary before these modalities are widely accepted as effective by the medical community, though the results of these studies may ultimately make providers less hesitant when patients seek out these services.

Non-Traditional and Non-Invasive Approaches in Facial Rejuvenation: A Brief Review M. Smith, A. Ferris, T. K. Nahar, V. Sharma, M.

2020 Acupuncture in Medicine

Acupuncture appears more effective than pharmacotherapy or surgery in the management of trigeminal neuralgia.

Acupuncture appears more effective than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Statistical analysis of side effects was not possible due to inconsistent reporting protocols, but the data suggest that acupuncture is considerably safer than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Acupuncture also appears to be the least expensive therapeutic modality to deliver long-term (65 weeks onwards), and our analysis indicated that it was less stressful to patients than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Further study into these areas and the practicality of its availability in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and other health systems is recommended.

Acupuncture in the management of trigeminal neuralgia Edwards, J. W., & Shaw, V.

2020 Acupuncture in Medicine

Acupuncture appears to be the least expensive therapeutic modality to deliver long-term in the management of trigeminal neuralgia, and our analysis indicated that it was less stressful to patients than pharmacotherapy or surgery.

Acupuncture also had fewer mean reported side effects compared with surgery and pharmacotherapy, and the lowest cost; after 5 years, the cost of acupuncture was estimated to be £750, compared to £1507.73 for carbamazepine and £4878.42 for microvascular decompression. Acupuncture was the least stressful according to the Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) (53 points), whereas surgery was second most stressful (153 points) and pharmacotherapy was the most stressful intervention to patients (217 points).

Acupuncture in the management of trigeminal neuralgia Edwards, J. W., & Shaw, V.

2020 Revista Internacional de Acupuntura

Acupuncture therapy seems to decrease frequency and intensity of trigeminal neuralgia pain episodes, alone or in combination with gold standard medications.

Among the six studies selected, most were randomized controlled clinical trials, developed in China. Only one study performed a retrospective cross-sectional. To assess pain, most used the VAS scale. There were very similar methods concerning points selection and treatment protocols. All studies found a significant decrease in pain frequency or intensity, disregarding the type of acupuncture applied.

Acupuncture therapy in trigeminal neuralgia: An integrative literature review Aquino I, Nascimento M, Aquino T, Kosminsky M

2019 Medicine

Acupuncture seems to be superior to drug therapy in the treatment of Bell's palsy including cure rate and total effective rate.

Despite the poor quality of the included studies, our meta-analysis further confirmed the results of previous researches. Despite the high risk of bias and heterogeneity, acupuncture seems to be superior to drug therapy in the treatment of Bell's palsy including cure rate and total effective rate, which may be an effective method of treating Bell's palsy. When treating patients with facial paralysis, Acupuncture can be seen as one of the effective and operational treatment options. However, due to the existence of methodological flaws and potential bias risk in the included studies, more high-quality and large-sample RCTs are needed. Therefore, please carefully refer to the research conclusions of this meta-analysis.

Compare the efficacy of acupuncture with drugs in the treatment of Bell's palsy Zhang R, Wu T, Wang R, Wang D, Liu Q

2018 Journal of Cosmetic Medicine

The safety of cosmetic acupuncture appears tolerable, however, well-designed high-quality studies, are needed to determine its effects on facial cosmetic conditions.

Our systematic review of 2 RCTs and 5 prospective, single- armed studies demonstrated that there are a few trials with high-quality evidence regarding cosmetic acupuncture for facial cosmetic conditions. The safety of cosmetic acupuncture appears tolerable; however, well-designed high-quality studies, such as sham-controlled studies with standardized cosmetic acupuncture interventions, are needed to determine its effects on facial cosmetic conditions.

Acupuncture for cosmetic use: a systematic review of prospective studies Byung-Cheul Shin & Kyeong-Tae Lim

2018 World Journal of Acupuncture - Moxibustion

Warm needling therapy is superior to acupuncture in treating peripheral facial paralysis, providing a therapeutic option for the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis.

The meta-analysis of 5 articles showed that warm needling therapy could improve the House–Brackmann (H–B) scores of patients with peripheral facial paralysis more than acupuncture, indicating that warm needling therapy provides superior improvement in the function of facial nerve innervation in the patients. No adverse events were reported in the included studies. The methodological quality of the included studies was generally low.

Effect of warm needling therapy and acupuncture in the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis: A systematic review and meta-analysis CAO J, YUAN A, ZHANG Y, YANG J, SONG X

2017 Medicine

Acupuncture therapy is effective in reducing the degree of pain in patients with temporomandibular disorders, especially those with myofascial pain symptoms.

This study compared the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture therapy in TMD patients through the meta-analysis of published results. Our results indicate that acupuncture therapy penetrating the skin has greater effectiveness and reduces the pain degree to a greater extent, especially myofascial pain symptoms, compared with both sham nonpenetrating acupuncture and sham laser therapy.

Acupuncture therapy in the management of the clinical outcomes for temporomandibular disorders Wu, Jun-Yi MD; Zhang, Chao MD; Xu, Yang-Peng MM; Yu, Ya-Yu MD; Peng, Le PhD; Leng, Wei-Dong PhD; Niu, Yu-Ming PhD; Deng, Mo-Hong PhD

2017 Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

In oral care, acupuncture can be a supplement to conventional treatments in temporomandibular disorders, facial pain, pain management, Sjoegrens syndrome, and in phobias and anxiety.

Acupuncture aims to treat a range of medical and dental ailments, though is most commonly used for pain relief. This article reviews about the various possible roles of acupuncture in clinical dental practice. Acupuncture has potential in supplementing conventional treatment procedures by its diverse applicability outreach. Role of acupuncture in dental practice has been well supported by clinical trials. Its role in alleviating facial pain, pre-operative and post-operative dental pain has led to its widespread application.

Acupuncture (針灸 Zhēn Jiǔ) – An Emerging Adjunct in Routine Oral Care Gupta, D., Dalai, D., Swapnadeep, Mehta, P.D., Indra, B., Rastogi, S., Jain, A., Chaturvedi, M., Sharma, S., Singh, S., Gill, S., Singh, N., & Gupta, R. (2014). Acupuncture (針灸 Zhēn Jiǔ) – An Emerging Adjunct in Routine Oral Care. Journal of Tradi

2017 Journal of Oral & Facial Pain and Headache

Acupuncture yielded results similar to those observed in groups treated with occlusal splints for pain in myofascial temporomandibular disorder.

A total of four randomized clinical trials using acupuncture (traditional, trigger point, and laser) for TMD treatment met the eligibility criteria and were included. Although the studies featured small sample sizes and short-term follow-up periods, acupuncture yielded results similar to those observed in groups treated with occlusal splints and were significantly superior than those obtained from placebo acupuncture–treated groups.

Despite the weak scientific evidence supporting its efficacy, acupuncture treatment appears to relieve the signs and symptoms of pain in myofascial TMD. More controlled and randomized clinical trials with larger sample sizes are needed in this field of research to verify these initial findings.

Acupuncture in Temporomandibular Disorder Myofascial Pain Treatment: A Systematic Review Ana Carla Bezerra De Carvalho Justo Fernandes, DDS, MSc/Dayanne Monielle Duarte Moura, DDS, MSc/Laura Géssica Dantas Da Silva, DDS, MSc/Erika Oliveira De Almeida, DDS, MSc, PhD/Gustavo Augusto Seabra Barbosa, DDS, MSc, PhD

2010 The Clinical Journal of Pain

Acupuncture is a reasonable adjunctive treatment for producing a short-term analgesic effect in patients with painful temporomandibular disorder symptoms.

The results of this meta-analysis suggest that acupuncture is a reasonable adjunctive treatment for producing a short-term analgesic effect in patients with painful TMD symptoms. Although the results described are positive, the relevance of these results was limited by the fact that substantial bias was present. These findings must be confirmed by future RCTs that improve the methodologic deficiencies of the studies evaluated in this meta-analysis.

Acupuncture in the treatment of pain in temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials La Touche R, Goddard G, De-la-Hoz JL, Wang K, Paris-Alemany A, Angulo-Díaz-Parreño S, Mesa J, Hernández M

2010 Evidence-Based Dentistry

There is limited evidence that acupuncture is more effective than sham acupuncture in alleviating pain and masseter muscle tenderness in temporomandibular disorders.

Seven RCTs (including 141 patients) met our inclusion criteria. Six studies comparatively tested needle acupuncture against penetrating sham acupuncture, non-penetrating sham acupuncture or sham laser acupuncture, whilst the remaining study tested laser acupuncture against sham laser acupuncture. Five studies were considered to be at low risk of bias. Outcomes were reported for pain intensity, facial pain, muscle tenderness and mouth opening.

Limited evidence that acupuncture is effective for treating temporomandibular disorders Jens C Türp

2010 Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies

Chinese acupuncture is safe and can be efficient in alleviating pain in patients suffering from temporomandibular disorder without clear joint pathology.

The results of this study showed that Chinese acupuncture was safe as administered here and was efficient in alleviating pain in patients suffering from temporomandibular disorder not caused by an osseous source. In approximately 90% of these patients, a statistically significant pain alleviation was observed, with the pain completely gone in most patients.

Acupuncture for treating temporomandibular disorder: retrospective study on safety and efficacy Noiman M, Garty A, Maimon Y, Miller U, Lev-Ari S.

2010 Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine

The evidence reviewed previously suggests that acupuncture is of similar efficacy as carbamazepine but with fewer adverse effects in treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria with 506 people in the acupuncture arm and 414 people in the control arm, in which carbamazepine (CBZ) was used as the control treatment. They were all low-quality studies, hence precluding meta-analysis. Only four trials reported that acupuncture was superior to CBZ, and the remaining eight studies showed no difference between the treatment and control groups. Adverse effects of acupuncture, which were reported in three studies, were mild.

A systematic review on acupuncture for trigeminal neuralgia Liu H, Li H, Xu M, Chung KF, Zhang SP