TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT DISCAL LIGAMENTS EVALUATION BY MRI

F. Cecchetti¹, M. Di Girolamo¹, L. Baggi² and D. Mazza²

¹Department of Clinical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy;
²Department of Social Dentistry and Gnathological Rehabilitation, National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP), Rome, Italy

Correspondence to:
Dario Mazza, DDS
Department of Social Dentistry and Gnathological Rehabilitation,
National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP),
Rome, Italy
e-mail: mzzdra@hotmail.com

Received: 15 May, 2017 Accepted: 23 June,2017

2038-4106 (2017) Copyright © by BIOLIFE This publication and/or article is for individual use only and may not be further reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction may result in financial and other penalties Disclosure: all authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the discal ligaments of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and correlate them with disc displacement, twenty-six patients (21 females and 5 males; age range 14-54 years; mean age 34 years) had bilateral TMJ evaluated by means of MRI since they were affected by TMJ disorders. Every joint was studied at closed and opened mouth with TSE double echo T2/PD weighted parasagittal and paracoronal individualised sequences. The following parameters were evaluated: the presence of reducible disc displacement (RDD) or a not-reducible disc displacement (NRDD); signal intensity, morphology, thickness and length of the ligaments; imaging quality of lateral and medial discal ligaments in paracoronal scans, expressed in percentage and correlation between the kind of disc displacement (RDD and NRDD) and axis of best visualisation of the discal ligaments; in 69% of TMJs had RDD whereas 31% of cases had NRDD. Ligaments showed a comma-like shape, a low signal intensity on T2-weighted sequences and intermediate signal intensity on DP-weighted ones; their length ranged from 3 to 8 mm. On paracoronal scans, the lateral discal ligament was depicted in 56% of cases, while the medial ligament was clearly defined in 75%. The lateral ligament was clearly defined in 60% of TMJs with RDD and 47,1% of TMJs with NRDD, whereas the medial ligament was clearly defined in 77,1% of TMJs with RDD. and in 70,6% of TMJs with NRDD. MRI can identify soft tissues of TMJ. Coronal T2-weighted scans are useful for identifying the discal ligaments in healthy and RDD TMJs.

KEYWORDS: temporomandibular, disk, joint, displacement, pain, imaging