Bilateral sound propagation characteristics in electronic TMJ sound recording

Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) sounds, clicking and crepitation, are important signs of possible TM disorder or dysfunction (TMD). The sound are usually recorded and observed by stethoscope auscultation or palpation. Sound from one TMJ may propagate through head tissues and be recorded on the contra lateral side misleading the examiner to classify both joints as non-silent. Errors in localization of sound source may lead to an erroneous diagnosis. Widmalm et al. (1997) suggested a mathematical model for estimation of the sound propagation characteristics through the head tissues. A modified model applying the auto-spectral density and cross-spectral density of the signal was used to estimate the bilateral sound propagation characteristics of temporomandibular joint sounds from two subjects. The result indicates that the head tissues act as a bandpass filter causing strong attenuation in some frequency areas with little attenuation in others. The phase response of the transfer function provides a good mean to estimate the latency in time between sounds.