Abstract
The fifth edition of the Guidelines for the assessment, diagnosis, and management of orofacial pain was published by the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP) in 2013. These AAOP Guidelines include Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) and Expanded TMD Taxonomy that had not been published at that time. DC/TMD are evidence-based validated diagnostic criteria which cover most common TMDs and can be used for both clinical and research settings. Expanded TMD Taxonomy covers the full range of TMDs based on ontology, in which a consensus-based classification system and associated diagnostic criteria that have clinical and research utility for less common but important TMDs are provided. These two criteria were established through international collaboration by the International RDC/TMD Consortium Network and Special Interest Group on Orofacial Pain of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). There were two diagnostic criteria for TMDs, that is, Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD), which were published in 1992 and have been extensively used in research settings, and the AAOP Guidelines, which provide clinicians with criteria for accurate diagnoses of TMDs, until the fifth edition of the AAOP Guidelines was published. The AAOP Council decided to adopt DC/TMD and Expanded TMD Taxonomy in 2012, then the two diagnostic criteria for TMDs were consolidated. These common tools facilitate the comparison of data among different study samples, the establishment of a working consortium of multi-national clinical centers having the capability to conduct interdisciplinary basic, translational and clinical research on an international and collaborative level, and the development of comparable evidence-based diagnostic criteria through research collaboration. It is also noted that these common tools will be revised as new evidences are accumulated.
