Even though some instruments and methods exhibited good to excellent reliability and validity and can be recommended for research and clinical practice , they do not allow assessing all components of physical oral health .
OBJECTIVE This study aim ed at exploring available clinical instruments and methods for assessing physical oral health , and at identifying those with sufficient diagnostic performance .
Electronic thermography for the assessment of mild and moderate temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
Today facial heat emission patterns may be rapidly obtained and quantified with the use of advanced electronic thermography units that have the promise of being a nonionizing , noninvasive , low-cost diagnostic alternative for the evaluation of temporom and ibular joint disorders . This study design measured the use of electronic thermography as a tool to select between asymptomatic ( control ) subjects and a patient group with mild to moderate temporom and ibular joint disorders . Study population s consisted of 24 asymptomatic ( control ) subjects and 20 patients with ( 1 ) either locked or unlocked temporom and ibular joints , ( 2 ) varying degrees of limitation of mouth opening , ( 3 ) mild to moderate muscle pain , and ( 4 ) mild to moderate temporom and ibular joint arthralgia . The results indicated that the control group demonstrated a high level of thermal symmetry over the temporom and ibular joint region . The patient group demonstrated a low level of thermal symmetry with a delta T value of 0.4 degrees C. The control group was selected from the patient group with 85 % sensitivity ( 17 of 20 ) , and 92 % specificity ( 22 of 24 ) , and 89 % overall accuracy ( 39 of 44 ) , when selecting among the 44 subjects used in this study . The conclusion therefore is that electronic thermography shows promise as a method of diagnosing mild to moderate temporom and ibular joint disorders
Even though some instruments and methods exhibited good to excellent reliability and validity and can be recommended for research and clinical practice , they do not allow assessing all components of physical oral health .
OBJECTIVE This study aim ed at exploring available clinical instruments and methods for assessing physical oral health , and at identifying those with sufficient diagnostic performance .