The relationship between temporomandibular joint pathosis and muscle tenderness in the orofacial and neck/shoulder region

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between TMJ pain/disk pathosis and the muscle tenderness pattern in the orofacial and neck/shoulder region. Study design: One hundred seventy-one TMD patients were divided into 4 groups, including group 1: patients with painful unilateral TMJ disk displacement (DD); group 2: patients with painless unilateral TMJ DD; group 3: patients with painless bilateral TMJ DD; and group 4: patients with a bilateral normal TMJ disk position (n = 41). Each subject underwent muscle palpation and the side-by-side number of muscle tenderness points was combined as the number of muscle tenderness points on each side. Within each group, DD with and without reduction subjects were separated into subgroups and then were analyzed. Results: In group 1, the median muscle tenderness points on the side with painful TMJ DD without reduction was significantly higher than on the normal side (P = .019), whereas the palpation scores for painless DD patients showed no significant difference between the DD and normal sides. Conclusions: These results indicated painful disk displacement to possibly be correlated with ipsilateral muscle tenderness.