History, Clinical Findings, and Outcome of Treatment of Patients with Anterior Disk Displacement

Abstract

This paper describes patients with clinically diagnosed anterior disk displacement, treated conventionally for craniomandibular disorders. The subjective symptoms and the clinical signs before treatment and one year later are reported. These findings were compared with previous reports of unselected patients at the same clinic who suffered from functional disturbances of the masticatory system, mainly from craniomandibular disorders. Patients with disk displacement exhibited a remarkable number of oral habits, such as bruxism and nail-biting. The outcome of treatment was about the same for patients with anterior disk displacement as for average patients. However, some patients who reported deterioration after one year had severe clinical signs. These patients had a higher frequency of general joint laxity than did the successfully treated patients.