Assessment of Morphologic Change of Mandibular Condyle in Temporomandibular Joint Osteoarthritis Patients with Stabilization Splint Therapy: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the 3-dimensional bony changes of the mandibular condyle in temporomandibular joints-osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) patients treated with stabilization splint (SS) therapy using shape correspondence analysis.

Methods: A total of 27 adult patients (2 men and 25 women) with a mean age of 24.6 +/- 3.9 years were included in this study. All patients were diagnosed with TMJ-OA and were treated with an SS. Cone-beam computed tomography data of the condylar head before and after SS therapy from 42 condyles (15 bilateral and 12 unilateral TMJ-OA) were used for the analysis. For the performance shape correspondence analysis (SPHARM-PDM), statistical differences were performed using the one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc tests.

Results: After SS treatment in TMJ-OA patients, bone resorption of the condyle head surface was predominant in the anterosuperior, superolateral, and superior areas, and bone formation was superior in the lateral, medial, posterosuperior, and posteromedial areas. The change in the condylar volume between the two groups was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: After SS treatment in TMJ-OA patients, there was both bone resorption and bone formation on the mandibular condyle head surface, which induced morphological changes in the condyle head.