Temporomandibular articular disorders can be alleviated with surgery

Medline, Embase and a variety of other sources were searched for English-language articles. Non-journal publications, conferences proceedings from professional organisations and from private and government agencies were screened. Bibliographies and reference lists from peer-reviewed and 'grey' literature were also reviewed.

To meet the inclusion criteria articles must have reported studies of at least 10 patients, involve diagnoses of disc displacement with reduction (DDwR) or without reduction (DDw/oR) or degenerative joint disease (DJD) and include at least one of the following surgical techniques: arthrocentesis; arthroscopy; discectomy without replacement or disc repair/repositioning.

The outcome measured was the proportion of patients who reported improvement after treatment. Study success rates were recalculated on an intent-to-treat basis. Meta-analyses were performed along with meta-regressions where heterogeneity was an issue. Three classes of meta-analyses were performed using different artificial, untreated, control groups assuming three levels of spontaneous improvement, namely 0, 37.5 and 75%.

Twenty-two studies, comprising 30 patient groups and sample sizes of 11-237 patients, met the inclusion criteria. For studies of patients with DDwR, at the 0 and 37.5% rates of control group improvement, arthroscopy and disc repair/repositioning resulted in treatment effects significantly greater than zero, with no significant differences in the efficacy of these two surgical techniques. For studies of patients with DDw/OR, the proportion of patients who improved after arthroscopy or arthrocentesis was significantly greater than zero at all three levels of estimated control improvement. Disc repair effect size was not significant at the 75% rate.

Surgical treatments appear to have some efficacy for people who have temporomandibular articular disorders that do not respond to nonsurgical therapies.