TMJ R Parametro ™

The TMJ is the jaw joint, which allows you to open and close the mouth. It is dissimilar to a hip joint because the “ball portion” also slides forward and sideward, besides showing rotation. The ball portion is the mandibular (lower jaw) “condyle” and the socket portion is the “glenoid fossa”. There is a disc between the glenoid fossa (further “fossa”) and the mandibular condyle (further “condyle”), which allows the condyle to slide smoothly while chewing, speaking and breathing. Muscles and ligaments keep the joint together and provide the force required to move the mandible. Numerous factors can cause temporomandibular disorder (TMD) which results in restricted jaw movement and facial pain.

Most TMD patients do not require surgery. They can be treated conservatively with one or a combination of the following: soft diet, analgesics, and anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy and hot/cold pack applications, mouth splints (bite plates), muscle relaxants, dental treatment including bite adjustments and orthodontics.

Only those patients who have an end-stage problem inside the joint itself that does not respond to conservative care or tissue-sparing surgery may be candidates for joint replacement surgery.

Candidates are patients who have finished growing and have TMJ problems along with one of the following indications:

Arthritic conditions: e.g. osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, traumatic arthritis, ankylosis (an abnormal fusion of the joint), revision procedures where other treatments have failed, avascular necrosis (death of tissue due to poor blood supply), multiple operated joints, malunited fractures, congenital malformations, benign and malign tumours.