Table 1.

Simplified table of studies that compared acupuncture treatment with an active control group.

Author, year	Experimental group	Control Group	Result
Barrero et al., 2012	Needle puncture acupuncture	Occlusal device	Both groups promoted improvements in pain relief on palpation in orofacial areas. Greater relief was provided in the experimental group. How much the pain improved on the VAS scale was not reported.
Ferreira et al., 2013	Occlusal device and laser acupuncture.	Occlusal device and placebo laser acupuncture.	Both groups promoted significant improvements in subjective pain relief and palpation in orofacial areas. Greater relief (10-7) was provided in the experimental group according to VAS.
Ferreira et al., 2015	Occlusal device and needle puncture auricular acupuncture.	Occlusal device	Both groups showed significant improvements in pain relief on palpation in orofacial areas. Greater relief (9-6) was provided in the experimental group according to VAS.
Rodrigues et al., 2019	Auricular laser acupuncture.	Occlusal device	Both groups promoted improvements in pain relief on palpation in orofacial areas, how much pain improved on the VAS scale was not reported, and on mouth opening, but they were similar. The control group promoted greater increase in mouth opening (1.46 mm).