Occlusal diagnosis in TMD patients with disorders of masticatory muscles

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Clinical criteria of normal occlusion are not clear, which could be useful for occlusal diagnosis of TMD patients. The purpose of this study was to study the possibility of habitual opening and closing movements for that criteria. We examined the movements at four persons with clinicatly normal occlusion and five TMD patients with disc displacements of the TMJ by a digital type jaw movement analyser MM-Jl-E.Actually horizontal positions of closing paths and their variations were measured at the vertical dimension of 2 mm beneath the intercuspal positions. As a result, 97% of the closing paths in normal subjects were contained within the circle of 1.08mm in diameter, while the same percentages of paths in patients within 3.36mm in diameter. On the other hand, the horizontal positions of closing paths in both groups occupied almost the same area, around 0.7mm far from the intercuspal positions.These facts indicate that habitual closing movements in normal subjects are remarkably better controlled than those in TMD patients and could be useful criteria for evaluation of the normal occlusion. However, number of subjects measured in this study was too small Lo make a decision definitely and therefore further studies are by all means necessary.