Densities and sizes of the main masticatory muscles in computed tomography compared with clinical findings related to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction.

Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) has a good resolution capacity and is an excellent method for measuring tissue densities. The aim here was to compare the densities and sizes of the main masticatory muscles, the masseter, medial pterygoid and lateral pterygoid muscles, as obtained with CT, with clinical findings in patients with TMJ dysfunction (25) and controls (29). The densities of the masseter muscles and the medial pterygoid muscles showed no statistical difference between the patients and controls, while the lateral pterygoid muscles of the patients had densities that were only almost significantly higher than those of the controls. The masseter muscles on the patients who more often had signs of bruxism in their dentition were statistically significantly thicker than in the controls, but the widths of the medial pterygoid muscles gave no statistical difference between the groups. The results seem to indicate that in addition to the bone density changes associated with functional disorders of the masticatory system, there may be also density and size changes in the masticatory muscles which are detectable by CT.