Bilateral investigation of the temporomandibular joint. An autopsy study of edentulous individuals.

Abstract

Investigations concerning normal and pathological anatomy of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) have shown that pathological reactions such as deviations of the shape of the condyle, disc thinnings, disc perforations and osteoarthrotic changes are fairly common, particularly in the elderly population. Autopsy studies of the TMJ describe pathological findings respective to their location in different age groups, but most authors describe their findings for removed joints of one side only. The specific aim of this study was therefore to investigate the intra-individual relationships between the degenerative changes and deviations concerning the articular surfaces of the TMJs and the topographical distributions of these findings. In this investigation both joints of 22 edentulous individuals between 58 and 95 years of age were studied. Correlations were found between the right and left joints with respect to the anatomical location of the pathological findings.