Abstract: Objective To analyze the effects of physiotherapy and manual therapy on temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Methods 90 patients with TMD were randomly divided into the medicine group (group A, n=30), physiotherapy group (group B, n=30) and physiotherapy combined with manual therapy group (group C, n=30). They were assessed with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of pain, maximum active mouth opening and joint clicking (100% before treatment) before and 4 weeks after treatment. Results All the patients improved in the pain after treatment (P<0.01), while the group B also improved in the maximum active mouth opening (P<0.01), and the group C improved in all the assessments (P<0.001). The result of all the assessment ranked from better to worse were group C, group B and group A (P<0.001). Conclusion Physiotherapy combined with manual therapy can improve the pain, the activity of mouth and joint clicking of TMD patients.

Key words: temporomandibular disorder, physiotherapy, manual therapy