[Temporomandibular joint examination under general anesthesia--a case report]

Surgical interventions involving the temporomandibular joint are subject to strict indications. It further requires the exhaustion of all conservative treatment possibilities before operative procedures are considered. This case report involves a patient with an impressive TMJ dysfunction. After a series of frustrating attempts at functional treatment, surgical intervention was finally decided. Under general anesthesia however, the patient examination showed not even the least pathologic change in the passive joint function. Besides considering the discrete signs of possible psychiatric-psychosomatic causalities for such alterations, it seems to us that a temporomandibular joint examination under general anesthesia in such suspected cases has a diagnostic and therapeutic significance.