Abstract
In this paper, we presented three cases who had some symptoms related to disorder of masticatory muscles, and considered several patterns of relation between temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and their adjacent diseases.
The case 1 had dizziness and disorder of sense of balance and the case 2 had palatal tremor. These symptoms were improved by using occlusal splints and occlusal reconstruction. The case 3 had tremor of hands, stiffness and dullness of masseter muscles, sternocleidomastoid muscles and trapezius muscles, opening limitation of mouth, masticatory disorder, sense of dysphagia and so on. Initially, definite diagnosis for the case 3 could not be made by several departments of medical hospitals, and the case 3 was suspected as TMD. However, the case 3 was finally diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but not TMD.
The treatment results of the case 1 and case 2 indicate that some kinds of occlusal treatments have possibility of becoming useful symptomatic therapy for medical diseases related to TMD. On the other hand, the case 3 calls our attention to existence of adjacent diseases which need differential diagnosis from TMD.
There are various patterns of contact between TMD and their adjacent diseases. It is difficult to divide the various patterns clinically. Therefore, it is considered that we must be careful in treating symptoms adjacent to TMD and should make efforts to solve mechanisms of the relation among TMD, occlusion and the related symptoms.
