Comparative study of the prevalence of temporomandibular joint osteoarthritic changes in cone beam computed tomograms of patients with or without temporomandibular disorder.

OBJECTIVES

To compare the prevalence of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritic changes in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and non-TMD patients.

STUDY

DESIGN

A retrospective analysis of CBCT images of the joints of TMD and non-TMD patients was performed. The presence or absence of osteoarthritic changes (condylar erosion, osteophyte, subcortical cyst, or generalized sclerosis) in each TMJ was evaluated. The prevalence within the two study groups were compared by using Chi-square statistics.

RESULTS

At least one type of osteoarthritic change was present in78.6% of joints in the TMD group and 79.7% in the non-TMD group. No significant difference was found in prevalence of osteoarthritic changes between the TMD and non-TMD groups in the overall study sample or within the subsets of gender and age in the groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The lack of a significant difference in prevalence of TMJ osteoarthritic changes in TMD and non-TMD patients highlights the equivocal relationship between osseous TMJ morphology and degenerative bone disease.