An Evaluation of Jaw Tracking Movements in Patients with Total Joint Replacements versus a Control Group

Abstract

Background and Objectives: One form of treatment for degenerative temporomandibular joint diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatic arthritis, TMJ ankylosis, and condylar resorption is total joint replacement. The aim of this study was to examine the function of the temporomandibular joint after total joint replacement. Materials and methods: Fifteen patients with unilateral or bilateral TMJ total joint replacements and 15 healthy controls were evaluated via a SICAT JMT+ device. This non-invasive system measures 3D position and linear movements in all degrees of freedom and allows undisturbed functional mandibular movements to provide a quantitative evaluation. In addition, a TMJ questionnaire consisting of the subjective symptoms was also obtained. To date, no similar studies have been cited in the literature. Results: Mandibular movements after total joint replacement were recorded during opening, closing, protrusion, and lateral excursive movements and were all significantly decreased compared to those of controls. In the treatment group, the maximum incisal opening was 33.46 ± 5.47 mm, left lateral movement was 1.91 ± 2.7 mm, right lateral movement was 1.74 ± 1.74 mm, and protrusive movement was 2.83 ± 2.05 mm. The p-value comparison study and control group indicated significant difference (p < 0.0001) between the two groups. The study group stated a high level of satisfaction with the total joint replacement. Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) TMJ replacement patients showed significantly limited jaw movements compared to the control group; (2) a small percentage of TMJ replacement patients still present low levels of pain but improved chewing ability and quality of life.

Light and Affordable Vision System for Mouth Opening–Closing Movement Deviation Assessment in Women with Mild Temporomandibular Joint Disorder

“…Adly et al [14] used the same marker positions. In many other methods, the main marker had direct contact with the inferior dental arch, which was supposed to eliminate the influence of skin movement during opening and closing to raise accuracy [15,16,34]. To achieve such positioning, plastic splints [35,36,36,37] or thermoplastic material [14,15] was applied.…”

“…Numerous methods for assessing mandibular motion are dedicated especially for dentists [14][15][16][17][18]. Objective methods require measuring tools, which exhibit different levels of accuracy, different set-up methods, and different requirements towards the room and staff qualifications.…”

Study of the Difference Between Centric Occlusion and Retruded Contact Position

“…Considering the results of different investigations [4,8,10,19] (Table 1 and 2), it can be expected that different techniques of the CR recording will (likely) position condyles within different CR area. With different methods of the condylar deviations measurement (condyle position indicator [6,8], magnetic resonance [24,25], different mandibular recording devices [13,14,26]), different samples and expected differences between researchers in mind, it would be difficult to divide CR area into parts with different probability for condylar positioning with certain CR recording technique.…”

Jaw motion tracking systems – literature review

“…14 E. Baltali et al effectively implemented 3D-JMT technology to compare mandible kinematics of a patient with osteoarthritis before and after unilateral joint replacement with a special implant and F. Rahman et al report positive results of postoperational functional assessment with JMT ultrasonographic device in the case of total joint replacement with an individual prosthesis. 15,16 The CAD/CAM systems prevalence in clinical prosthodontics practice was followed by the development of virtual articulators' software. In the present era of digital dentistry, the main goal and future direction focuses on the development of single, holistic virtual environment for gathering and merging data.…”