Romero, Marisa Elizabeth; Avila, Karen Daiana; Altamirano, Hugo & Christiani, Juan Jose
Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequent temporomandibular dysfunctions, its cause is a non-inflammatory degenerative disorder of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which is characterized by the presence of morphological and functional changes. The diagnosis is confirmed when structural changes in the subarticular bone are observed on an imaging study. The objective of the study was to determine the osteoarthrotic changes at the level of the mandibular condyle with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The study carried out was descriptive, observational, retrospective. In this analysis 142 cone-beam computed tomographic images of the temporomandibular joints of patients between 20 and 80 years of age of both sexes who attended the Imaging Diagnostic Service of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (Corrientes, Argentina), were observed during the years 2016 to 2019, visualizing 284 temporomandibular joints, finding that in 40 of these images, at least one osteoarthrotic change was visualized. Of the total number of patients observed, 28.17 % presented osteoarthritic changes visualized with TCHC, with a predilection for the female sex (85 %). Of the osteoarthrotic changes studied, a higher frequency of flattening (46.75 %) and osteophytes (25.97 %) was obtained. Taking into account that these changes can manifest at an early age, CBCT is an effective tool for visualizing the first degenerative bone changes that occur at the TMJ level, even when clinical symptoms do not yet appear.
KEY WORDS: osteoarthritis, temporomandibular joint, cone beam computed tomography.
How to cite this article
ROMERO, M. E.; AVILA, K. D.; ALTAMIRANO, H. & CHRISTIANI, J. J. Osteoarthrosis of the mandibular condyle. Evaluation with cone beam computed tomography. Int. J. Odontostomat., 18(4):501-505, 2024.