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In Germany, dentistry has been largely ignorant of Health Technology Assessment (HTA). Nonetheless, HTA projects related to clinically and socioeconomically relevant topics may prove to be very valuable for a variety of "dental" conditions. One representative example are temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Among the conditions summarized under this term, pain - located in or around the temporomandibular joints and/or the masticatory muscles - is the most conspicuous. Considering a prevalence of about 3% in the German population, TMDs represent a significant health problem. However, dentists tend to adhere to a traditional dental/biomedical approach, while fundamental principles of diagnosis and management of chronic pain are hardly known. Too often, diagnostic and therapeutic measures are based on unverified hypotheses and are characterized by unfavourable cost-benefit and risk-benefit ratios. In this situation - and in spite of the increasing financial limitation of the German health system - HTA appears to be suitable to improve the quality of care in dentistry.