What points can I use and what herbs?
Patient is female age 59. She has oromandibular dystonia for 3 years and taking medication for it (diazapam), she is also smoking.
What points can I use and what herbs?
Patient is female age 59. She has oromandibular dystonia for 3 years and taking medication for it (diazapam), she is also smoking.
Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
Oromandibular dystonia can be treated with acupuncture, but you need to take a multi-faceted approach due to the poorly understand nature of the condition. As opposed to other neurological problems, something like Bell's Palsy, for example - oromandibular dystonia is believed to be linked with the dopamine levels in the body. From this aspect, using points just in the local area like you might for any face problem often lead to poor results.
As with all conditions, an overall TCM pattern is crucial to find first, before you begin treatment. In general you would draw points and patterns from either the anxiety and/or depression treatment pages and then use local points for the face, facial nerves, etc. In general we would use an anxiety/depression pattern that best fits and then add some or all of the following depending on the patient and what areas we found were sensitive, etc.:
Strong Tuina in the huatuo area of C3, C4, LI 18, SI 17 to regulate the facial nerves - before and after needling.
Needle according to the overall pattern and then add in points such as Tai Yang, ST 3, ST 5, ST 6, GB 2, etc.