Abstract
Bilateral temporomandibular joint arthrography was performed on 40 patients who were clinically and symptomatially suspected of having unilateral internal derangements of TMJ and on 23 patients who were clinically and symptomatically suspected of having bilateral internal derangements of TMJ.
59% (37) of the patients showed bilateral internal derangements, 33% (21) of the patients showed unilateral internal derangements, and 8% (5) of the patients had bilateraly normal findings.
The evaluation of the clinical examination which was standardized by arthrographic diagnosis was less accurate than expected, because the signs and symptoms such as clicking and locking were not necessarily distinctive for anterior disk displacements of TMJ.
About half the patients with symptomatically and clinically normal temporomandibular joints may have radiographic signs of disk displacement. This suggests that a negative clinical temporomandibular joint examination may involve a risk of being false-negative.
This clinical investigation showed a high likelihood of bilateral disk displacement in patients with symptoms of unilateral or bilateral internal derangements.
These findings of bilateral disk displacement and asypmtomatical disk displacement emphasize the importance of examining both temporomandibular joints including asymptomatc joints by medical imaging which can show articular disk, such as arthrography and MRI.
