Research Article Comparison of the Effectiveness of Three Different Acupuncture Methods for TMD-Related Pain: A Randomized Clinical Study Emanuela Serritella , Gabriella Galluccio , Alessandra Impellizzeri , PaolaDiGiacomo ,andCarloDiPaolo Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoEmanuelaSerritella;emanuela.serritella@uniroma1.it Received 6 July 2021; Revised 24 October 2021; Accepted 8 November 2021; Published 30 November 2021 AcademicEditor:JianliangZhang Copyright©2021EmanuelaSerritellaetal.isisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose. is study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three acupuncture methods for temporomandibular disorders- (TMDs-) related pain. Materials and Methods. Different locations of pain, according to DC/TMD clinical assessment, were considered:temporomandibularjoint(TMJ),masticatorymuscles,head,andneck.Sixtypatientswereassignedrandomlytoone ofthreetreatmentgroups(20patientsineach):groupBAreceivedbodyacupuncture,groupEAreceivedelectroacupuncture,and group CA received acupuncture+cupping. e groups were compared in terms of pain (verbal numeric scale), pain-related disability (Brief Inventory Pain, BPI), and impression of the treatment’s effectiveness (Patients’ Global Impression of Im- provement Scale, PGI-I). ese were recorded before sessions of acupuncture treatment (T0), after 8 sessions of acupuncture treatment(T1),andafter4weeksoffollow-upaftertreatment(T2).ebetween-groupandwithin-groupdifferencesinthedata were analyzed statistically. e baseline characteristics were similar in all groups (p > 0.05). Results. Significant improvements werenotedinalltypesofpaincomparedtobaselinevaluesinallgroups(all p < 0.05).Nosignificantdifferenceswerenotedinthe improvement of TMDs-related pain according to the different acupuncture techniques (all p > 0.05). All acupuncture methods usedresultedtobesignificantlyeffectiveinimprovingthepain-relatedinterferenceinthepatient’scommonactivitiesandquality oflife.EAresultedtobesignificantlymoreeffectivethanBAandCAinimprovingtheinterferenceofpainwithpatients’mood (p � 0.015)andqualityofsleep(p � 0.014). Conclusion. BA,EA,andCAarealleffectiveacupuncturemethodsinreducingpain and pain interference with common activities and quality of life in patients affected by TMD. 1.Introduction Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are considered as oneofthemajorcausesoforofacialpain[1].Painrelatedto TMDs is typically reported in the chewing muscles, pre- auriculararea,orthetemporomandibularjoint(TMJ)[1,2]. Often,manypatientsdonotshowlocalizedpainbutamore complex symptomatology, including headache, cervical pain, atypical facial pain, and head and neck muscle hy- persensitivity [3, 4]. e presence of these symptoms may worsenthequalityoflifeofpatientsandinterferewiththeir emotional and social lives [5]. Due to the wide variety of clinical manifestations of TMDs-related pain, its treatment involves different therapeutic methods, such as splint therapy,medication,surgicaltherapy,physicaltherapy,low- level laser therapy (LLLT), transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), ultrasound, vibrational therapy, psy- chological support, and, increasingly in recent times, acu- puncture [6–8]. Although many of acupuncture’s physiological and neurological mechanisms are still unknown, the efficacy of acupuncture for pain therapy has been well established [9, 10]. In many clinical studies, acupuncture has been proven to be an effective form of pain management, par- ticularly pain of musculoskeletal origin, including TMDs [9, 11–14]. Acupuncture comprises a wide range of treat- menttechniques,methodsofpointstimulation,anddevices [15]. Body acupuncture is the most common type of Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2021, Article ID 1286570, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/1286570