Effect of the posterior stop on temporomandibular disorders: A systematic review

Temporomandibular disorders have common signs and symptoms, including pain in the masticatory muscles, limitation or deviation in a mandibular range of motion, and other common patient complaints, such as headache and earache. The main focus of this study was to collect comprehensive and integrated data on the effect of the posterior stop on temporomandibular joint disorders, as well as prevention, treatment, and follow-up care for the patients.

The authors conducted the search in PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINHAL, Medline, ProQuest, Google Scholar, Magiran, IranDoc, SID, and Iranmedex databases for relevant articles. A list of selected study sources, related conferences, and grey literature were manually searched in addition to the databases mentioned above. A 21-year time limit was imposed (2000-2021).

Finally, 16 articles were selected to be reviewed in this systematic review. The designs of the included studies were heterogeneous, and due to the low number of studies covered, the authors could not carry out a meta-analysis.

The causes of temporomandibular disorders are multifactorial and complex. Therefore, it is difficult to investigate the relationship between this disorder and predictors. The results of the present study indicate that to determine the effect of the posterior stop on temporomandibular joint disorders, more clinical trials and case-control studies should be conducted.