In this Rehabilitation & Prevention section, the paper by Ziaeifar et al. (2014) examines the effect of dry needling on trigger points in the upper trapezius. The second paper, by Dibai-Filho et al. (2014), is a research study that looks at the role the temporalis muscle - and specifically its anterior fibres - may have in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction; a common yet often under-diagnosed problem, which may commonly be the source of other muscu-loskeletal pain, especially in the neck.The trapezius muscle, (and its close cousin, the sterno-cleidomastoid or SCM), are unique in their innervation and action inasmuch as they're the only muscles with direct connection spanning from trunk to head that are innervated by a cranial nerve (the Accessory, Cranial Nerve XI).A potential link between these two accompanying papers is the possible presence of a trigemino-cervical reflex, which has been studied by Milanov et al. (2001). This reflex may link afferent bombardment from nociceptive drives from the TMJ into the trigeminal nucleus, with sensitization of the muscles supplied by the accessory nerve; the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid (Milanov et al. 2001 reported a stronger effect in the SCM than the trapezius upon stimulation of the trigeminal nerve.)Clinically, the trapezius, and especially its upper portion, is commonly found to be symptomatic, often generating pain and housing trigger points, as well as being implicated in muscle imbalance syndromes such as the upper crossed syndrome.
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