A group of 201 patients who had received acupuncture for chronic facial pain during the last 10 years was reviewed. Of patients with temporomandibular joint or muscular pain, 46% claimed full recovery after acupuncture and 61% reported benefit. In trigeminal neuralgia there was a 30.8% claim of considerable improvement with a 69.2% overall benefit. It was felt that greater accuracy in interpreting response rates would result from the use of a visual analogue scale to record pain; so this was assessed in a small group, in which 75% showed improvement after acupuncture.
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