Various therapies have been utilized to treat individuals with disc displacement without reduction (DDwoR) in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), but their clinical effectiveness is unknown.

Methods: Four databases: CENTRAL, PUBMED (MEDLINE), EMBASE, and Scopus – were electronically searched. Other manual sources included citation searches and reference lists of included research, reference lists of pertinent review papers and textbook chapters, and 7 journals with a high likelihood of including papers related to the review topic.The researchers looked at two key outcomes (TMJ pain intensity and maximum mouth opening) as well as a number of secondary outcomes.

Results: According to the present systematic review of literature, there is little support for strengthening activities that target the masticatory muscles. There was also no evidence for manual soft tissue work targeting masticatory muscles, which could be due to the pterygoid muscles' limited accessibility to palpation. Splint therapy and electrophysical modalities, such as laser therapy, ultrasound, TENs, and iontophoresis, had little to no evidence for pain alleviation.

Conclusion: The included studies were too heterogeneous and at an unclear to high risk of bias, hence evidence levels are now insufficient for conclusive judgments. Because of the similar treatment outcomes, the scarcity of high-quality evidence, and the higher risks and costs associated with more complex treatment, patients should be encouraged to try them.