Subjective pain report and the outcome of several orthopaedic tests in craniomandibular disorder patients with recent pain complaints.

A comparison between a subjective pain report and the outcome of the combined dynamic and static pain tests, and several other orthopaedic tests, was investigated in craniomandibular disorder (CMD) patients with recent pain complaints and in control subjects. Thirty-two CMD patients who clearly reported pain in the masticatory muscle region or in the temporomandibular joint region by means of a symptom report questionnaire (SRQ), participated in the study. The investigators performing the symptom report interview and the clinical tests were blinded to each other. A high correspondence was shown between the patients reporting joint or muscle pain (by means of SRQ) and the classification into arthrogenous and myogenous pain patients, based on the outcome of the dynamic and static pain tests (P = 0.0003). The outcome of four other orthopaedic tests: passive maximum mouth opening (PMMO; P = 0.0001), palpation of the temperomandibular joint (TMJ) and the masticatory muscles (P = 0.0002), TMJ-play (P = 0.0001), and TMJ-compression (P = 0.0138) demonstrated significant differences between the patients reporting joint and muscle pain.