Acupuncture for Painful Temporomandibular Disorder

A randomized, single-blind, sham-controlled trial will enroll 48 patients, divided into acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups. The study will consist of a 1-week baseline, 4-week treatment, and 8-week follow-up period, with 30-minute sessions three times a week for 12 sessions. Primary outcomes include changes in Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores at week 4, with secondary outcomes including VAS changes at week 8, jaw function, and scores on pain, sleep, and mental health scales. Multimodal MRI scans will assess brain changes at baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up. Our research is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) combining sMRI, fMRI, and DTI to explore the efficacy of acupuncture in TMD treatment, using multi-modal imaging to provide a comprehensive biological profile of TMD patients. Our study aims to (1) analyze brain structural and functional network changes post-acupuncture, explore the relationship between central imaging and clinical symptom changes, and (2) predict individual treatment outcomes for TMD.