Effect of orofacial exercises on oral aperture in adults with systemic sclerosis

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Purpose: To examine the effect of a home orofacial exercise program on increasing oral aperture among adults with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Method: Forty-eight adults with SSc were assigned randomly to the multifaceted oral-health intervention or usual dental care control group. Participants with an oral aperture of <40 mm in the intervention group received an orofacial exercise program, which included daily manual mouth-stretching and oral-augmentation exercises twice a day with a total of 6 minutes for 6 months. The outcome measure was oral aperture which was measured at baseline, 3-months, and 6-months intervals. Results: A significantly larger increase in oral aperture for participants received the orofacial exercise program was found when compared to those in the usual care at 3 months (P = 0.01), but not at 6-months evaluation. Participants’ adherence rate to the exercise program was low (48.9%). Conclusions: The orofacial exercise program intervention for adults with SSc and microstomia did not show significant improvement at 6 months. In addition to the low exercise adherence rate, insufficient frequencies, repetitions, and durations of the orofacial exercises may contribute to these results.Implications for RehabilitationMicrostomia in adults with systemic sclerosis (SSc) has profound impacts on their quality of life.Orofacial exercise programs have the potential to improve the size of oral aperture.Brief daily orofacial home exercises for 6 months did not result in a significant increase in the size of oral aperture.