Facial nerve injury during surgery of the temporomandibular joint: a comparison of two dissection techniques.

Changing the dissection technique for gaining access to the temporomandibular joint decreased the incidence of facial nerve injury from 25% to 1.7%. This decrease can be attributed to the elimination of both development of a skin flap and dissection of tissue overlying the lateral capsule. Normal anatomic variation in the distribution of facial nerve branches may relate to the incidence of clinically apparent injury.