Measuring Jaw Pain and Mouth Opening in Muscular TMD

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who see patients with jaw pain and who record pain intensity and mouth opening as outcome measures. Athletic trainers, occupational therapists, dentists and chiropractors who manage temporomandibular disorders will also find the material readable.

Licensed physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in outpatient orthopaedic, craniofacial, or general musculoskeletal settings. Physical therapist assistants deliver and document interventions and collect outcome measures under the direction of the supervising physical therapist, who retains evaluation, diagnosis, and plan-of-care decisions.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

Based on: Young I, Dunning J, Mourad F, Escaloni J, Bliton P, Fernández-de-las-Peñas C. Clinimetric analysis of the visual analogue scale and pain free mouth opening in patients with muscular temporomandibular disorder. CRANIO®: The Journal of Craniomandibular & Sleep Practice. Published 2025. doi:10.1080/08869634.2025.2464227. Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence.

This course reports what that single article studied, found, and concluded, together with the comparisons its authors drew with earlier work. It introduces no claim the article does not support, and it is an educational summary rather than a clinical practice guideline.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe the patient population, the treatment context, and the two outcome measures examined in this secondary clinimetric analysis of a multicenter randomized trial in muscular temporomandibular disorder.
2. State which of the measures held up best on repeat testing in patients who reported no change, and how well each measure separated improved patients from stable patients at the three-month follow-up.
3. Explain, in plain terms, what the reported thresholds for measurement error and for meaningful improvement represent when interpreting a patient's change in jaw pain and pain-free mouth opening.

1. Start Here: How This Course Works
2. Podcast: What the VAS and Pain-Free Mouth Opening Showed (about eight minutes)
3. Muscular Temporomandibular Disorder and the Two Measures Being Tested
4. How the Visual Analog Scale and Pain-Free Mouth Opening Were Examined
5. Reliability, Validity, and Responsiveness at the Three-Month Mark
6. How Much Change Counts, and What the Analysis Cannot Settle
7. What the Findings Could Mean for Measuring Jaw Pain and Opening
8. Key Takeaways
9. Post-Test and Course Evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Based on: Young I, Dunning J, Mourad F, Escaloni J, Bliton P, Fernández-de-las-Peñas C. Clinimetric analysis of the visual analogue scale and pain free mouth opening in patients with muscular temporomandibular disorder. CRANIO®: The Journal of Craniomandibular & Sleep Practice. Published 2025. doi:10.1080/08869634.2025.2464227. Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence.
2. This course reports what that single article studied, found, and concluded, together with the comparisons its authors drew with earlier work. It introduces no claim the article does not support, and it is an educational summary rather than a clinical practice guideline.