Feasibility of manual therapy in combination with a Dynasplint® for the treatment of trismus in head and neck cancer survivors

In this 2020 paper, Jodi Nedeljak dives deep into the use of the Dynasplint® passive stretching device combined with manual therapy for post-head and neck cancer-related trismus, which is a common secondary effect of radiation treatment. I've often been curious about how clinicians wall off passive devices, such as the Dynasplint® and Therabite® as somehow distinct interventions from manual therapy. Though the intervention is delivered by a device, there is still a patient-experienced interaction/intervention going on, be it from my hands or from a device.

Nedeljak's paper demonstrates the utility of adding manual therapy to Dynasplint® over the use of the Dynasplint® alone, with demonstrable improvements in mouth opening coming from the combined intervention over the Dynasplint® alone. The use of such devices ar one way to provide home-based continuation of care. I've yet to see a similar study looking at trismus and self-applied manual therapy, but I suspect someone will undertake such a study at some point.

Nedeljak's full paper may be found at this link.