Temporomandibular disorders — TMD — affect the jaw joint and the muscles that move it. For some people that means clicking and occasional soreness. For others it means constant pain, difficulty eating, disrupted sleep, and headaches that never fully lift.
Treatment options are limited, and the ones that exist are uneven in how well they work.
ULLTRA is a University of Florida study examining whether photobiomodulation — a form of low-level light therapy — can help manage TMD pain. The study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT05916235 and is currently listed as recruiting.
Photobiomodulation delivers specific wavelengths of light to tissue. The proposed mechanism involves effects on cellular energy production and local inflammation. It is non-pharmacological and non-invasive, which is precisely why it is worth testing rigorously: treatments with a low burden are attractive, and attractive treatments get adopted ahead of the evidence unless someone does the work.
That is the point of a registered clinical trial. Not to confirm that a promising idea works, but to find out whether it does.
The same UF team has a second photobiomodulation study, EPIC-KO (NCT07079969), examining inflammation and chronic pain in knee osteoarthritis. It is registered and listed as not yet recruiting.
You can read the full ULLTRA record — design, eligibility, outcomes, and contacts — on ClinicalTrials.gov. Everything about a registered trial is public by design.
If you are interested in taking part in pain research at UF more generally, the research registry is the place to start.
What we study:
- Pain and Aging
- Chronic Pain Risk Factors
- Pain and the Brain
- Musculoskeletal Pain
- Pain and Exercise
- Non-Medical Treatment of Pain
Prefer to talk to a person? Call 352-273-5967 or email PRICE-CTSI@ufl.edu.
UF Study ID IRB201400126
References
- Photobiomodulation for Management of Temporomandibular Disorder Pain (ULLTRA). Principal Investigator: Margarete C. Ribeiro-Dasilva, DDS, MS, PhD. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT05916235. Status: Recruiting. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05916235
- PRICE Research Registry recruitment materials, UF Study ID IRB201400126. IRB-approved; supplied by site owner. https://is.gd/PRICE