ANALISYS OF ARTICULAR AND DISC MORPHOLOGY IN PATIENTS WITH TMJ INTERNAL DERANGEMENT

Keywords: TMJ – Articular Disc.        
Objective: to evaluate articular and disc morphology, as well as its position and to associate them with the diferent articular pathologies. Material and method: there were evaluated 81 TMJ magnetic resonances from patients suffering from cranio-mandibular disorder symptoms. On the resonances a tracing were performed and variables were measured. Articular eminence was clasified according to morphology in: box, sigmoid, plane, and deformed. Articular disc was classified by its morphology in: biconcave, biplanar, biconvex, hemiconvex, and folded. Disc position was determine as: (a) superior, (b) anterosuperior, (c) anterior and (d) anteroinferior. Articular dereagement were grouped in: Disc displacement with recapture (DDWR) and Disc displacement without recapture (DDWOR), also healthy joins were registered. All variables were agroupated according to TMJ side in right or left. Results: A total of 162 joints resonances were analized. In the patient group, 86% were women and 14% male, mean age 30.9 years. Of all the joints studied, 17% took the form of box, 70% sigmoid and 13% flattened. The disc is presented with biconcave shape in 52.5% of cases, 10% biplane, 9.5% hemiconvex, 10% biconvex and 19% folded. According to pathology, 19% had DDCR, 15% DDSR and the rest (46%) were healthy. No significant differences were found between age and the presence of internal disorders as according to side (p = 0.545 left and p = 0.261 right) (Kruscal Wallis Test), nor by gender (p = 0.459 and p = 0.337 left right) (chi square test .) No significant differences were found between the morphology of the articular eminence and articular pathology (p = 0.72) (chi square test), but there was an association between the morphology of the disc and joint disease (p <0.0001) and between disc position and pathology (p<0,0001)(chi square test). Conclusion: joint morphology is not associated with the presence of various joint internal derangements, but there is evidence to suggest that the morphology and position of the disc are associated with them. Subsidio 26/ J414 CIUNT