Effect of photobiomodulation treatment on pain control in patients with temporomandibular dysfunction disorder: systematic review

Objective To critically evaluate the literature and answer the question, "How effective is photobiomodulation treatment on pain control in patients with TMJ disorder?". Methods PRISMA, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase databases were used for the personalized search strategy. For risk of bias, Rob 2.0 for randomized clinical trials and ROBINS-I for non-randomized clinical trials were used. Results Eighty-four articles were found and, after removing duplicates, seventy one studies were included for titles and abstracts. For a full reading, 30 articles were selected and, according to the eligibility criteria, 24 remained for qualitative analysis. The studies showed a low risk of bias. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies, it was not possible to perform a meta-analysis. Conclusion Photobiomodulation is an effective adjunct for the treatment of temporomandibular disorders, being a less invasive approach, safe, low-cost, and without side effects.