In order to review the studies related to the facial pain by acupuncture, we have referred to a PubMed site by using MeSH searching word of "facial pain and acupuncture".
12 journals with 20 papers were reported on the facial pain and acupuncture.
Among them, 4 papers were appeared in Am J Chin Med, 3 in Acupunct Electrother Res, 2 in Br. Dent J, J Orofac Pain and Swed Dent J respectively, and 1 in 7 journals respectively.
According to the classification of the patterns, 15 papers were done by clinical studies, 2 by review and meta-analysis respectively, and 1 by experimental study.
TMD was the most disease that related to facial pain and CMD, neurogenic facial pain (trigeminal neuralgia, postherpetic pain), dental pain and MPS were also appeared.
Most of the studies didn´t mention the acupuncture points, L14 Habkok in 4 papers and ST36 Chogsamni in a paper were only mentioned.
Various modalities were applied in the trials such as classical acupuncture, electroacupuncture, TENS, SSP and auricular acupuncture.
By the above results, we concluded that various acupuncture techniques are used with effectiveness on the facial pain. It would be needed further research on the acupuncture point specific and therapeutic techniques as well.
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