To compare arthroscopy with radiography in patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) symptoms and generalized joint disease.
Twenty patients with generalized osteoarthritis (GOA) and TMJ symptoms and 21 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and TMJ symptoms were examined with arthroscopy and radiography (individualized oblique lateral transcranial projections and sagittal and frontal tomography).
In the GOA group there was a significant correlation between pronounced degenerative changes at arthroscopy and flattening of the eminence and reduced joint space superiorly and posteriorly on radiographs and between moderate to pronounced bone or disk remodelling and reduced joint space superiorly and posteriorly. In the RA group there was a significant correlation between moderate to pronounced degenerative changes at arthroscopy and radiographically extensive erosions in the condyle and between moderate to pronounced fibrosis and reduced translation.
Compared with conventional tomography, arthroscopy revealed TMJ pathology earlier and more frequently. It may therefore in individual cases be the first choice examination, particularly as treatment can be given simultaneously.