Arthrocentesis in the management of internal derangement of the temporomandibular joint

Abstract

Background

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) cover a wide spectrum of disorder; myalgic, arthralgic and psychogenic. The procedure of TMJ arthrocentesis has a role in managing patients with arthralgic pain and limitation if they fail to respond to non‐surgical therapy.

Method

The patient records of a single private specialist OMS were searched over the nine year period of 2006‐2014 to identify patients who had arthrocentesis as part of their multidisciplinary management. The detailed demographic, diagnosis, pre and post arthrocentesis procedure were identified and put on a database. Appropriate statistics were performed.

Results

Seventy six patients had 115 arthrocentesis procedures performed in the study period. Fifty of 76 had improvement in their pain and 16 of 41 had an increased jaw opening of more than 10mm. There was no complications or morbidity. Analysis of patient variables generally showed no correlations.

Conclusions

Temporomandibular joint arthrocentesis has a role in the multidisciplinary, multimodality treatment of arthralgic TMD.

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