Eleven patients with complete maxillary dentures and 12-unit fixed partial dentures that included the mandibular canines were studied before and during specific intervals after prosthodontic treatment. Established methods for evaluation of oral function were used and the last examination was performed 30 months after treatment. All patients reported that their masticatory function had been substantially improved and there were no symptoms of dysfunction in the masticatory system. Masticatory efficiency improved after the prosthodontic treatment because both the number of cycles before the initial swallow and the total number of strokes including the time for completed mastication diminished after treatment. The occlusal force elevated after the prosthodontic treatment. Although great individual variations were recorded for all occasions and force levels, forces recorded on the extensions of the cantilever were similar to those on the canine regions.

Mandibular jaw opening was related with general joint mobility in a non-patient adolescent group. The angular rotation of the mandible at maximum jaw opening was slightly larger in females than in males and significantly larger in hypermobile individuals. No significant relationship between linear measuring of maximal mandibular opening capacity and peripheral joint mobility was found either at active (AROM) or at passive range of mandibular opening (PROM). PROM was strongly correlated to the mandibular length. Clinical signs in the great jaw closer muscles could not be associated to decreased AROM. The mean value of the difference between PROM-AROM (DPA) was 1.2 mm. Frequent clenching and/or grinding was correlated to increased DPA only in hypermobile adolescents (r = 0.49***). Those with DPA exceeding 5mm had all reciprocal clicking.

Agreement between observers classifying TMJ sounds from data given in records of nonpatient adolescents was almost perfect in this interobserver study. Intraobserver and interobserver agreement in classifying all specific TMJ sounds at palpation and auscultation was acceptable to moderate (kappa value = 0.49 to 0.74). The agreement was considerably more reliable when classifying only one specific TMJ sound. Measurements of linear jaw opening showed small interobserver differences (coefficient of variation = 2.4 to 3.8). The significant difference found in calculating the angular mandibular opening may be the result of difficulties in maintaining maximum passive opening.

This paper describes patients with clinically diagnosed anterior disk displacement, treated conventionally for craniomandibular disorders. The subjective symptoms and the clinical signs before treatment and one year later are reported. These findings were compared with previous reports of unselected patients at the same clinic who suffered from functional disturbances of the masticatory system, mainly from craniomandibular disorders. Patients with disk displacement exhibited a remarkable number of oral habits, such as bruxism and nail-biting. The outcome of treatment was about the same for patients with anterior disk displacement as for average patients. However, some patients who reported deterioration after one year had severe clinical signs. These patients had a higher frequency of general joint laxity than did the successfully treated patients.

Chewing efficiency, defined as the ability to grind a certain portion of a test food during a given time, was tested in 139 Skolt Lapps, ages 14-65. 94 persons had natural teeth and the remaining 45 wore dentures (partial and/or complete). The test food was almonds. Number of chewing strokes, swallowings and chewing time was denoted. The chewing efficiency was classified after a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 meant very good and 5 very poor ability to reduce the particle size of the test food. Clear associations were found between chewing efficiency and dental state. Number of occluding pairs of teeth was closely correlated with chewing efficiency and individuals with less than 20 teeth had a higher index score than those with more than 20 teeth. The values noted for number of chewing strokes, swallowings and chewing time were smaller for those with a good chewing efficiency, but the variation was not linear and not always significant. Denture wearers had statistically significantly higher chewing efficiency score than those with natural teeth, without dentures, and needed more chewing time before swallowing.

Facial morphology was studied in profile and postero-anterior radiographs of the skulls of 25 men with strong bite force and 25 with weak bite force (average age 24.8 years). The strong men differed from the weak in having an anterior inclination of the mandible with a smaller anterior and a greater posterior face height, a smaller gonial angle, a straighter cranial base and greater depth of the upper face, a tendency to parallelism between the mandibular occlusal line and the mandibular border as well as a broader maxilla. The inter-group variance of the facial morphological variables was most often smaller in the strong men but no clear difference was found for variables of the cranial base. The strong group was more homogeneous in facial morphology. The findings support the hypothesis that the form of the face partly depends on the strength of the muscles.

The maximal bite force and the strength of the finger-thumb grip of 125 Skolt Lapps, aged 15 to 65, was measured with a specially devised apparatus. The bite force was measured with the biting fork placed between the first molars and between the incisors, respectively. The finger-thumb grip was measured by letting the subject press the prongs of the fork between the thumb and forefinger of each hand as hard as possible. The range of inter-individual variation of the maximal bite force and finger-thumb grip was great. The mean values were higher for the males than for the females. In the males the maximal bite force thus measured in the molar region was 39 kg (382 N) and 18 kg (176 N) in the incisor region. The corresponding values for the females were 22 kg (216 N) and 11 kg (108 N). The finger-thumb grip strength for males was, on the average, 10 kg (98 N); that of the females, 7 KG (69 N). The average difference in bite force between the men and the women was larger in the group with natural teeth than in the one with complete dentures. The values found for the bite force decreased with increasing age, especially for the females. Most of this reduction with increasing age was probably due to the age-dependent deterioration of the dentition. In both sexes the bite force was notably smaller among the denture wearers than among the dentate persons. The number of natural teeth varied closely with the bite force, i.e. the greater number of natural teeth the greater the bite force.

PapersRadiographic Examination of the Temporomandibular JointAnn-Marie Lindvall, Eva Helkimo, Lars Hollender and Gunnar E. CarlssonAnn-Marie LindvallDepartments of Oral Radiology and Stomatognathic Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author, Eva HelkimoDepartments of Oral Radiology and Stomatognathic Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author, Lars HollenderDepartments of Oral Radiology and Stomatognathic Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author and Gunnar E. CarlssonDepartments of Oral Radiology and Stomatognathic Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:23 Jan 2015https://doi.org/10.1259/dmfr.1976.0004SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byOther TMJ Imaging ModalitiesCBCT Evaluation of the TMJMandibular Fracture and Dislocation in a Case Study from the Jewish Cemetery of Lucena (CÓRDOBA), in South Iberian Peninsula (8th-12th ad )12 August 2011 | International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Vol. 23, No. 4Clinical Assessment of Patients with Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular DisordersDental Clinics of North America, Vol. 57, No. 3Comparison of bony changes between panoramic radiograph and cone beam computed tomographic images in patients with temporomandibular joint disordersThe Korean Journal of Orthodontics, Vol. 40, No. 6Role of different imaging modalities in assessment of temporomandibular joint erosions and osteophytes: a systematic reviewAM Hussain, G Packota, PW Major and C Flores-Mir28 January 2014 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 37, No. 2Multifactorial modeling of temporomandibular anatomic and orthopedic relationships in normal versus undifferentiated disk displacement jointsThe Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, Vol. 87, No. 3Imaging of the temporomandibular jointOral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology, Vol. 83, No. 5Comparison of tomography and midfield magnetic resonance imaging for osseous changes of the temporomandibular jointOral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology, Vol. 82, No. 6Assessment of temporomandibular joint disease by panoramic radiography: reliability and validity in relation to tomography.L Dahlström and A M Lindvall28 January 2014 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 25, No. 4Usefulness of tomography in the evaluation of patients with temporomandibular disordersOral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology, Vol. 81, No. 6Temporomandibular joint imagingClinical Radiology, Vol. 51, No. 1Current trends in temporomandibular joint imagingOral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology, Vol. 80, No. 5A Follow-up Study of Radiographic Findings in the Mandibular Condyles of Orthodontically Treated Patients and Associations with TMD8 November 2016 | Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 74, No. 9Pathogenesis of Degenerative Joint Disease in the Human Temporomandibular Joint1 December 2016 | Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, Vol. 6, No. 3Radiographic structural findings in the mandibular condyles of young individuals receiving orthodontic treatment2 July 2009 | Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, Vol. 53, No. 2Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis: a comparative clinical and tomographic study pre- and post-treatmentJournal of Oral Rehabilitation, Vol. 21, No. 4Current Status of Diagnostic Procedures for Temporomandibular DisordersThe Journal of the American Dental Association, Vol. 125, No. 1Reliability and Validity of Imaging Diagnosis of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder1 December 2016 | Advances in Dental Research, Vol. 7, No. 2A clinical and tomographic study on temporomandibular joint osteoarthritisOral Radiology, Vol. 8, No. 2The contribution of frontal tomography to the diagnosis of temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis.H Sato, T Fujii, N Yamada and H Kitamori28 January 2014 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 21, No. 2Corrected TMJ tomography: Effectiveness of alternatives to SMV tracingAmerican Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Vol. 100, No. 6The radiologic morphology of asymptomatic temporomandibular jointsOral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Vol. 70, No. 3Diagnostic outcome and observer performance in sagittal tomography of the temporomandibular joint.W Cholitgul, A Petersson, M Rohlin, K Tanimoto and S Akerman28 January 2014 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 19, No. 1Standards for the History, Examination, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD): A Position Paper18 February 2016 | CRANIO®, Vol. 8, No. 1The effect of increasing occlusal vertical dimension on transcranial radiographic projections of the temporomandibular jointsThe Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, Vol. 60, No. 4Arthroscopy of the temporomandibular joint. 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Diagnosis, Vol. 22, No. 6Comparison between Three Radiographic Techniques for Examination of the Temporomandibular Joints in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis30 August 2016 | Acta Radiologica. Diagnosis, Vol. 22, No. 2Mandibular dysfunction and temporomandibular joint pathosisThe Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, Vol. 43, No. 6Temporomandibular Joint Relations as Revealed by Conventional Radiographic TechniquesEckerdal O. and Lundberg M.23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 8, No. 2The Structural Situation in Temporomandibular JointsEckerdal O. and Lundberg M.23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 8, No. 1Radiography of the Temporomandibular Joint Using the Transpharyngeal ProjectionL.-G. Hansson and A. Petersson23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 7, No. 2A Case of Hard Tissue Reconstruction within the Temporomandibular JointA. Isberg-Holm and R. Ivarsson23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 7, No. 2Comparison between Radiologic Observations and Macroscopic Tissue Changes in Temporomandibular JointsLaurence R. Bean, Karl-Åke Omnell and Torsten Öberg23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 6, No. 2Axial Tomography of the Temporomandibular Joint Using Hypocycloidal Movement of Tube and FilmGregorio Faivovich and Karl-Åke Omnell23 January 2015 | Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol. 6, No. 1 Volume 5, Issue 1-2January 1976Pages: 5-64 © 1976 The Authors. Published by the British Institute of Radiology History Published onlineJanuary 23,2015 Metrics Download PDF

In thirty patients (24 women and 6 men) treated because of dysfunction of the masticatory system at the department of Stomatognathic Physiology, University of Gothenburg, bite force was registered before, during and after treatment had been completed. In the controls, thirty-six dental students and trainee dental nurses, with no dysfunction of the masticatory system, bite force was registered on two occasions. Bite force was measured between the first molars on each side and between the central incisors. Also finger force was registered. The force measurements were made at five different levels, increasing from very weak to maximum force. Repeated tests of bite force in the control group, made at intervals of about 1 week, gave almost identical results. Bite force in the patient group was lower than in the control group at the first registration but increased with palliation of the symptoms during treatment. There was no significant difference in bite force between the affected and the unaffected side.

A great number of people (60–70%) have some problem with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) but most are asymptomatic. About 25% of this group has symptoms that can be attributed to the TMJ. Of this group only 5% will get treatment and these patients are mostly women – they outnumber male patients by at least 4 : 1. Temporomandibular disorders occur at any age but most often in young adults. Pain the temporomandibular area is the most common complaint and is easily related to a lesion of the TMJ. However, the exact cause of TMJ problems is often difficult to determine because several disorders may be present at the same time and combined muscular and inert tissue disorders are not uncommon. As a consequence, it may be necessary to treat both joint and muscle. Conservative treatment is still the most effective management for more than 80% of patients. There are several major causes of TMJ problems: • A single major injury, even if it has been only a light blow to the mandible or extreme stretching of the TMJ, can permanently injure the joint and ligaments. • Repetitive microtraumas, such as clenching, grinding or atypical chewing for a prolonged period of time, may damage the joint and then lead to muscular problems. • Monoarticular arthritis and inflammatory polyarthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, but seldom psoriatic arthritis, may affect the joint. • Abnormal biomechanical loading as a result of structural changes of the teeth may also be harmful. However, this should not be overestimated as a cause of TMJ problems. Disorders of the temporomandibular joint are summarized in Table 1.