New Red Light Therapy For Jaw Pain Study: As Good As Conventional Therapy!

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Red Light Therapy And Jaw Pain: Great Dec 2025 Study!

So we have a huge update on jaw pain. A new study was published in Dec 2025 - which is fully readable for free here. The study investigates "myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome" - "myo" here means "muscle".

That "myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome (MPDS)" is present in people with jaw pain. I've written extensively about this topic in the past, with reccently publishing an article here:

In this more recent December 2025 study, moreover, researches conclude that:

Red light therapy lowers jaw pain and helps you open your mouth (mouth opening is often an issue with people with jaw pain). The results of red light therapy are similar to conventional treatment - more on that later.
With red light therapy you've got superior initial pain control, although this effect levels out over time.
As always, more research is needed. Optimal treatment parameters are unknown for instance.

The study added a picture of the laser treatment shown here:

Researchers used a 200 mW laser (not tremendously powerful), at 630 and 810 nm. The total dose was 6 J/cm2. The study had an intervention group that received the real laser treatment, and a control group that received a sham treatment (the laser wasn't activated there, so the participants thought they received treatment).

Here's the protocol for treatment frequency, as well as measuring the outcome:

"Treatment was administered daily for the first three days and then every other day over the following week, totaling 12 sessions. A single experienced operator conducted all treatments, and laser output was verified prior to each session using a power meter. [VAS scores, which measure pain] and [Maximum Mouth Opening] were assessed by a separate trained examiner at weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4."

Here's the general treatment protocol, that's even applicable to the control group:

"All participants were instructed on conservative management strategies including jaw stretching exercises, consumption of soft foods, applications of moist heat or cold packs, correction of cervical posture, and elimination of parafunctional activities. They were also instructed to refrain from using analgesic or anti-inflammatory medications during the study period."

So, everyone used hot and cold packs, jaw muscle stretches, etc. Pain levels? Even though the intervention group (with lasers) had slightly higher pain levels to begin with, it dropped off more quickly:

The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) measures pain between 0 and 10, with "0" being no pain and "10" signifying the most intense pain imaginable. Unfortunately, this level didn't reach statistical significance though - as it seems that the jaw pain is automatically healing over time, even if no lasers are applied.

For maximum mouth opening, in this study, the laser group underperformed the control group slightly, even:

Nevertheless, it can be argued that both groups achieve pretty good results over time and that there's no superior method. Both groups don't statistically differ so there's no superior way of going about this.

You may argue that you don't need light therapy for that reason but I'd take another perspective here. I've written about this dynamic extensively and broke down dozens of different studies in my TMD/TMJ article. Again, read my full article here:

In that article, it's very very clear that you'll often have huge effects on different types of jaw pain, for both pain and function. Treatment is also very easy and simple, as you only need a small device.

In March 2026, the devices I'd recommend here are the torch devices (that closely resemble what is used in the study above!). Alex Fergus has reviewed a torch here:

And then there's a very cheap inexpensive handheld device, such as from Rouge, Block Blue Light, Mito Light, etc, which you can get here:

But back to the study. Why didn't the researchers find additional benefits of laser treatment over and above conventional treatment for jaw pain? The researchers write:

"In contrast, other studies have reported significant positive effects of PBMT in TMD treatment. Difference among study findings may be attributed to variability in laser parameters (e.g., wavelength, energy output, duration), treatment protocols, participant characteristics, sample sizes, and outcome measures.

Maia et al., in a systematic review comparing laser therapy with control interventions, reported promising effects of photobiomodulation on TMD-related pain. However, they cautioned that these results should be interpreted carefully due to inconsistencies in laser parameter standardization across studies."

So the researchers admit, as I do, that studies generally show a lot of benefit using red light therapy for jaw pain or jaw dysfunction (TMJ; TMD).

What's interesting is how reversible the effects are. Apparantly, in this study, 95% or so of participants had chronic pain lasting longer than 6 months. With both laser treatment and conventional methods, they reversed that situation after about a month.

Yes, both conventional treatment and lasers will work. And no, lasers (or more broadly "light therapy") didn't outperform conventional therapy in this study. But it's still very hopeful that people can reverse a difficult situation!

Poll Time: Where Do You Use Your Red Light Therapy Device?

Poll time - Alex posted this poll a few months ago - you can still participate in that poll by clicking THIS link:

We regularly hold polls in our Facebook group, which offers us very unique information we can't get from other sources.

Check the poll listed above HERE and you can join our Facebook group HERE. There are 30K members in that group now, give or take!

Also, Check Out Some Of Our Other Content:

Below you'll find some of our best content that you shouldn't miss:

Red Light Therapy April News: New Devices, Science & Industry Shifts - Once more, the latest red light therapy news: new devices, new science, Q&A from our Facebook group, current and upcoming content we've published, and much more!
Red Light Therapy For Sleep: 10 Groundbreaking Studies - Bart considers all of the available red light therapy & sleep studies here, and teaches you how to apply these insights into sleep quality improvement. These studies show groundbreaking results for deep sleep, melatonin levels, recovery, and other areas.
Do LED Masks Actually Build Collagen? The Studies Say This: - Here's Alex's breakdown of the science on red light therapy and collagen - an often claimed benefit for many red light therapy masks and panels. But is it true?

Light Therapy Advanced Science Course - Contains Content On Exercise Performance Too:

Join Bart's 100% free advanced science light therapy course above, where he takes deep dives into many different topics, such as mechanisms, neurology (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc), exercise recovery, skin beauty & rejuvenation, and much more.

Some of the topics are only published in that course, such as UV light risks and benefits, addiction, anxiety, depression, and more. So join HERE!