A Case of Open Bite Accompanied by Temporomandibular Joint Disorder: A Comparison of Occlusal Conditions before and after Treatment in Lateral-oblique Radiogram

According to the authors' clinical experience, malocclusion accompanied by temporomandibular joint disorder involves mainly cross bite, open bite, deep overbite or axillary protrusion. However, it is possible that the symptoms of this disorder are associated with other types of malocclusion or even with nearly normal occlusion. In fact, it can be said that temporomandibular joint disorder may develop with any type of occlusion. This paper reports a case of open bite accompanied by temporomandibular joint disorder occurring in a patient who visited our hospital because of pain in the left temporomandibular joint region, vertigo and partial deafness. In this patient, the temporomandibular symptoms disappeared after orthodontic treatment. The patient received no particular treatment thereafter because follow-up observation confirmed that the therapeutic results were favorable without any relapse of the symptoms of temporomandibular disorder. The positions of the temporomandibular joint and mandibular condyle were determined in lateral-oblique radiograms obtained using our radiographic system, by which the mandibular condyle is radiographed using a projection consistent with its long axis.