Severe Temporomandibular Joint Osteoarthritis: A Case Report
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Copyright: © 2019 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Temporomandibular joint disorders are part of musculoskeletal pathologies. Clinical signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders most commonly mentioned are: clicking, crepitation, joint pain, muscle pain, mouth-opening limitation. Cone beam computed tomography has become very efficient method of viewing bony changes in TMJ. Case Report: A 50-year-old woman was referred for the specialist orthodontic consultation. The patient was diagnosed with skeletal open bite, skeletal class I with tendency to class II due to clockwise rotation of the mandible, maxillary constriction, crossbite on maxillary right second molar, dentoalveolar discrepancy, teeth malposition, missing teeth: 16, 36, 37, 47, teeth attrition and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Cone beam computed tomography revealed signs of severe osteoarthritis of both TMJs. Discussion and Conclusion: Osteoarthritis is an age-related, chronic and progressive degenerative joint disease. It occurs more often in women. It is considered to be an inflammatory disease. Typical radiological signs of osteoarthritis are: osteophyte, subcortical sclerosis, subcortical cyst, surface erosion, articular surface flattening and generalized sclerosis. Thorough examination of TMJ function and morphology is necessary at the beginning of any orthodontic and dental treatment. Undiagnosed TMJ dysfunction may cause further problems with entire masticatory system, including joints, muscles and teeth.
