Evaluation and management of temporomandibular disorders. Part 2: an orthopaedic physical therapy update on examination and clinical reasoning

ABSTRACT

Temporomandibular (TM) disorders afflict many people globally and, despite the presence of existing peer-reviewed material that assists conservative orthopedic providers, recent advances in knowledge indicate that updated resources are required for students, clinicians, and educators. This two-part series builds off previously published material to present newer supplementary information that can be useful during the evaluation and management processes. Content in Part 1 of this series includes a discussion about the factors that have been shown to contribute to TM disorders, an updated perspective of relevant pain science, a discussion of self-report outcome measures, and various different topics related to the examination of patients with TM disorders. Part 2 addresses information related to the temporomandibular joint disc, joint hypermobility, oral splints, and clinical reasoning. In combination with other available publications, this two-part series provides clinicians an opportunity to improve their delivery of effective and efficient clinical services for people diagnosed with TM disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical therapy
• Physical examination
• Review
• Temporomandibular joint disorders
• Clinical reasoning

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Jeffrey P. Okeson, DMD from the University of Kentucky for supplying images related to oral appliances.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.