Prevalence of temporomandibular joint disorders in adult students Evaluation of the intraarticular pathologic status by use of MRI

• Published in: Journal of the Japanese Society for the Temporomandibular Joint Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 335 - 347
• Main Authors: TANNE, Kazuo, NONOYAMA, Daisuke, TAGUCHI, Akira, TANIMOTO, Keiji, HAGITA, Youji, SUEI, Yoshikazu, NAKAMOTO, Yasumichi, OZAWA, So
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Society for Temporomandibular Joint 20.09.1998; 一般社団法人 日本顎関節学会
• Subjects: Asymptomatic subject group; MRI; TMJ disorders; TMJ internal derangement; 無症状被検者群; 顎関節内障; 顎関節疾患
• ISSN: 0915-3004; 1884-4308
• DOI: 10.11246/gakukansetsu1989.10.335

This study was conducted to investigate the nature of prevalence of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders in adult students by means of the evaluation of the intraarticular pathologic status with MRI. Thirty-eight students in the Dental Technicians School, Hiroshima University School of Dentistry were used as the subjects. The subjects consisted of 13 males and 25 females with a mean age of 22-year 2-month old (range; 19-45). Intraarticular pathologic status was classified into six stages according to Wilkes and Schellhas criteria based on the degree of disk displacement and deformations of the disk and condyle on the MR images. The following findings were obtained. 1. TMJ disorders were found in 42% of all the subjects, or in 35% of all the joints. 2. Anterior displacement of the disk was detected for 15 subjects (39%) or 23 joints (31%). Among these subjects, seven subjects presented unilateral disk displacement, and bilateral disk displacement was found in the remaining eight subjects. Reducible disk displacement was observed in 15 joints (65%) among 23 joints with disk displacement, whereas 8 joints (35%) exhibited disk displacement without reduction. 3. Disk deformation was recognized in seven and seven joints (47% and 88%) out of 15 and 8 joints with reducible and irreducible disk displacements, respectively. 4. Intraarticular pathologic status for the internal derangement was as follows. Stage 0; 49 joints, Stage I; 7 joints, Stage II; 6 joints, Stage IV; 9 joints, and 4 joints were unclear. It was shown that prevalence of TMJ internal derangement was 39% in adult students. These findings indicated an importance of special attention to these asymptomatic subjects, if they undergo dental treatment, in order to prevent an onset of the latent pathologic status in the TMJ.