An obvious gender difference of a male to female ratio of 1 to 3 and age distribution, showing a doublecurve peaking in the twenties and forties, were apparent among the patients.The chief complaint of pain in the masticatory muscles tended to increase. Whereas, patients having occlusal problems involving premature contact, interference during movement to the eccentric position, or discrepancy tended to decrease.These two distinctive points were thought to represent the yearly transitional trend of TMD patients in the northern part of the Tohoku region in Japan.

The results were as follows:1. The questionnaire was answered by 53% of the patients.2. Slight decreases in the degree of daily life interference, range of mouth opening, spontaneous pain, opening pain, and masticatory pain were observed.3. The TMJ sound in 3.4% of the patients worsened, while 46.2% of the patients improved.In terms of bad habits, 1.7% patients worsened, and 21.9% patients improved.4. Since the range in mouth opening that was evaluated subjectively did not exactly match the objective results, careful evaluation was necessary to determine the effect of the treatment.

Abstract:Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the temporomandibular joints (TMJs) were studied in 58 craniomandibular disorder (CMD) patients and 5 normal volunteers, by taking either the gradient echo or spin echo pulse sequence in combination with the single or dual surface coil.Furthermore, 3 subjects from both groups were also studied with arthrography. Results showed both the MRI and arthrography to have the same findings in regard to the condyle-disk relationship at both positions of the mouth closing and opening among the 6 subjects.Although the MRI had previously been thought to provide no evidence of disk adhesion in the upper joint compartment, cine MRI induced by a fast-scan mode enabled us to distinguish those disks with adhesion from those without. Direction of the disk displacements were judged by combining the MRI on the coronal and sagittal planes. The bilateral simultaneous cine MRI was thought to be of help in evaluating the coordination of the condyle movement associated with each disk.Utilizing the cine MRI with a dual surface coil seemed to have greater value not only in terms of screening TMJs, but also for evaluating the therapy needed for CMD patients.