Clinical experience in the splint therapy of patients with TMJ dysfunction. Part I. Diagnostics

At a clinical appointment, dentists increasingly have to deal with patients complains on TMJ dysfunction. The treatment of such patients is a rather difficult clinical task, due to the confusing clinical symptoms and the need of rather complex additional research methods, to which not all doctors have access and an adequate level of knowledge of the topic. Aim of this study is to summarize our own experience in the treatment and prevention of TMJ dysfunction, to create a simple clinical classification of the stages of dysfunction proceed and to develop treatment algorithms corresponding to this classification. Material and methods. We treated 196 patients (44 men and 152 women) aged 17 to 58 years with signs of TMJ dysfunction. All patients were divided into subgroups according to the proposed classification of stages of dysfunction. TMJ diagnosis was carried out mainly by CBCT analysis in Avantis3D software. Results. A clinical classification of TMJ dysfunction has been developed. Conservative treatment of TMJ dysfunction using different splints was based on this classification. The results obtained confirmed the high efficiency.