Abstract
There has been no cephalometric study of complete denture wearers that clearly distinguishes those persons with internal derangement of temporomandibular joint from those with normal disk position in relation to mandibular function.
Out of a total of sixty complete denture wearers, eighteen patients with normal temporomandibular joint (TMJ) were compared to forty-two patients with documented TMJ internal derangement.
The group with internal derangement of TMJ was divided into two groups, one with reduction of disk displacement (twenty-five patients), and the other without reduction of disk displacement (seventeen patients). The patients in these two groups were examined using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
Lateral, P-A cephalogram, transcranial TMJ radiograph, EMG, and SGG were used to investigate the relationship between TMJ disk displacement and facial skeletal structure and mandibular function. The results were as follows:
1. A desirable and functional centric relation could not be achieved among asymptomatic patients with internal TMJ derangement.
2. Asymptomatic patients with internal derangement when recording maxillomandibular relation demonstrated considerable variation in the width of the space between the condyle and the fossa and mandibular lateral deviation.
