Volume 16 - Issue 3

This study analyzes the degree to which pretreatment psychosocial factors (psychological dysfunctions and stress) effect outcome in 269 consecutive temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients at the completion of treatment. Employing the TMJ Scale, a validated measure of TMD symptoms, it is found that pretreatment TMD pain and overall symptom levels (excluding internal derangement symptoms) are weakly but nevertheless, significantly related to ...

A 32 year old white female, in apparently good health, failed to respond to conservative wound care for alveolar osteitis after a routine mandibular first molar extraction. Curettage and biopsy of necrotic alveolar bone from the #30 socket escalated her pain such that hospitalization was necessary for pain management with intravenous morphine. Twelve months prior to admission she had been placed on exogenous estrogen (Premarin, 0.625 mg/day) after a partial oophorectomy. While hospitalized ...

 Studies exist which support the efficacy of TM joint arthrotomy, arthroplasty and arthroscopic surgery. Few, if any, studies have evaluated failures of arthroplasty and/or diskectomy and specific risk factors that might invite initial surgical failure. This paper is a retrospective review of 210 patients operated with arthrotomy/arthroplasty for painful and dysfunctional TM joint derangement. There were 303 surgical procedures evaluated over a follow-up period of 4-9 years. Patient ages ranged from 16-72 years ...

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and nature of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with symptoms in this joint, and to investigate the relationship of symptoms to the C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and Steinbrocker stage. Clinical examination of the range of motion of the TMJ was performed in 218 RA patients. In addition, correlations between the maximal mouth opening and the severity of RA ...

This study was conducted in order to determine the input visual effect on electromyographic (EMG) activity of the sternocleidomastoid and masseter muscles in the supine and lateral decubitus positions. The study was performed on 22 patients with myogenic cranio-cervical-mandibular dysfunction (CMD) and 18 healthy subjects. EMG activity at rest and during swallowing of saliva and maximal voluntary clenching was recorded in the supine and lateral decubitus positions in the following conditions : 1. with eyes open ...

The claims data base of a large New England managed care organization was used to compare the health care utilization patterns of patients with TMJ disorders to non-TMJ subjects. Inpatient, outpatient and psychiatric claims data were examined over a wide range of diagnostic categories. Age and sex adjusted results showed that, overall, patients with TMJ disorders were greater utilizers of health care services and had higher associated costs than non-TMJ subjects. For some of the ...

This study compares the frequency of signs and symptoms from the cervical spine in 24 patients diagnosed with Meniere’s disease and 24 control subjects from a population sample. From a previous controlled comparative study concerning signs and symptoms of craniomandibular disorders, 24 patients diagnosed with Meniere’s disease (10 males and 14 females) and their 24 matched control subjects participated in this investigation on the state of the cervical spine. Symptoms of cervical spine ...

This article describes a case report of a 52 year old patient with a ten year history of orofacial pain who was misdiagnosed with a craniomandibular disorder (CMD) and trigeminal neuralgia. After a epidermoid cyst in the skull base had been diagnosed and removed the complaints diminished and finally disappeared.