Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this work was to show the efficacy of stomatognathic alignment exercise program on mouth opening limitation improvement in spastic myogenic temporomandibular disorder of hemiparetic cerebral palsy children.

Method: Thirty children were enrolled in this study and randomly assigned into two groups; group A (traditional physiotherapy program plus stomatognathic alignment exercise program), and group B (traditional physiotherapy program only). I used the standard ruler for detecting and follow up mouth opening limitation depends on the ratio between maximum comfortable mouth opening and maximum assisted mouth opening. This measurement was taken before initial treatment and after 12 weeks of treatment. The children parents in both groups A and B were instructed to complete 1 hour of home routine program.

Results: Data analysis was available on the 30 hemiplegic cerebral palsy children participated in the study. The mean value of mouth opening in both groups (assessed by C.M) at baseline measurement (pre-treatment) and (post-treatment) was insignificant (p>0.05). Both groups had a significant improvement in mouth opening posttreatment. The average improvement of mouth opening tended to being highly significant in the study group than in the control group. The percentage of improvement of mouth opening were (16%) in the study group compared to the control group (4%).

Conclusion: According the results of this study it can be concluded that the combined effect of physiotherapy training program in addition to stomatognathic alignment exercise program can be recommended in improvement mouth opening ratio in hemiplegic cerebral palsy children.

Keywords: Stomatognathic; Ex spasticity of masticatory muscles; Hemiplegic CP