Papers of the Week

Pain is a natural response of the body to injury and one of the symptoms defining an inflammatory reaction. It is almost always present after orthognathic surgeries (OGS), but its severity is subjective in each patient. Postoperative care of the patient is aimed at minimizing of postoperative pain relief orofacial region. Options of physiotherapy include extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF) and high-energy light-emitting diode (LED). . The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of physiotherapy combining ELF EMF and LED to reduce pain of the orofacial region in patients after OGS. . The study was conducted in thirty-two patients who underwent OGS to treat morphological defects. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: Physiotherapy group (PT) and Control group (CG). In both groups, patients were prescribed Paracetamol and nonsteroidal analgesics (NSAID-ibuprofen). Patients from the PT group additionally received postoperative physiotherapy immediately after leaving the surgical clinic in the form of ELF EMF and LED therapy. Physiotherapeutic treatments were performed for 10 days, three applications a day, at no cost to the patient. Pain intensity was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS), which is a reliable instrument for the measurement of pain intensity self-reported by the patient.