Determining the frequency of functional disorders of the TMJ in patients with mandible fractures depending on the location

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To investigate the frequency of functional TMJ disorders in patients with fractures of the mandible. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: To achieve this goal, 111 patients hospitalized in the department of surgical dentistry of the Chernivtsi Regional Clinical Hospital were examined for traumatic fractures of the mandible with functional disorders of the TMJ (occlusive, muscular, articular disorders). The examination of patients with functional disorders wasbased on Express - the conclusion of the Hamburg Protocol: 1. pain in palpation of joints; 2. pain in palpation of chewing muscles; 3. presence of noises in the joints; 4. violation of the opening trajectory; 5. the opening of the mouth is limited; 6. eccentric occlusion, premature contacts. Statistical processing of research results was carried out using commonly used methods of variation statistics. RESULTS: Results: We found that on average, mandibule fractures showed the highest number of single-function occlusion`s (18.92%) and articular disorders (21.62%) and multifunctional occlusal-articular disorders (20.72%), with the smallest the frequency of one-function muscle`s disorders (4.50%). Multifunctional TMJ disorders «occlusal + muscle» and «muscular-articular» in this contingent of patients were determined, on average, at the same percentages (10.81%). Attention was drawn to the fact that «muscular + articular» dysfunction of the TMJ was diagnosed more frequently with the immobilization of the fragment with the help of osteosynthesis (18,18 ± 4,54%) and with the combined method (15,39 ± 3,84%) than when both jaws are splinted, p <0,05. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: It was established that in patients with fractures of the jaws of different localization single-functional articular disorders (21.62% of the subjects) and multifunctional «occlusion-articular» disorders (20.72% of the examined) predominated. In this case, the frequency of TMJ dysfunction, to a large extent, depended on the nature of the displacement and the way of immobilization of the fragments of the mandible.