Title

Comparison of TENS and Astaxanthin monotherapy for myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome

Authors

Smriti Jagdhari^1,*, Aarati Panchbhai², Mukta Motwani¹ & Mohit Gunwal³

Affiliation

¹Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Ranjeet Deshmukh Dental College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; ²Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sharad Pawar Dental College And Hospital, DIMMS DU, Sawangi, Maharashtra, India; ³Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Ranjeet Deshmukh Dental College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; * Corresponding author

Email

Smriti Jagdhari - E-mail: drsmritigolhar@gmail.com
Aarati Panchbhai - E-mail: aratipanch@gmail.com
Mukta Motwani - E-mail: motwanimukta@yahoo.co.in
Mohit Gunwal - E-mail: dr.mohitgunwal@yahoo.in

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026

Abstract

Myofascial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome (MPDS) is a common chronic temporomandibular disorder characterized by pain, tenderness, and restricted jaw movement, making its management challenging. Hence, 60 patients with MPDS received either TENS or astaxanthin and were followed for one month to assess symptom relief, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and quality of life. Both groups showed improvement, but the astaxanthin group demonstrated significantly greater reductions in pain and CRP levels and better improvement in mouth opening, mandibular movements, and SF-36 scores than the TENS group. Thus, we show that astaxanthin is a promising non-invasive therapeutic option for MPDS. Further, we show the potential anti-inflammatory and functional benefits of astaxanthin over a commonly used conservative treatment modality.

Keywords

MPDS, Astaxanthin, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), CRP, Quality of life

Citation

Jadhari et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 5287-5293 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.