Classification and prevalence of temporomandibular joint disk displacement in patients and symptom-free volunteers

The purposes of this study were to develop a classification system for disk displacement in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and to study the prevalence of the various types of TMJ disk displacement in patients and symptom-free volunteers. The study was based on bilateral MRIs of 243 patients and 57 symptom-free volunteers. Eight different types of disk displacements were identified in addition to the superior disk position and a tenth indeterminate category. Superior disk position was observed bilaterally in 18% of the patients and bilaterally in 70% of the symptom-free volunteers.