Cranio-Cervical Inter-Relationships

Current concepts of temporomandibular joint (TM joint) disorders and cranio-facial pain vary in philosophy, diagnosis and therapy. Even today, few practitioners agree in their understanding of pain diagnosis and treatment. Thus, many articles (Lindbloom, 1953; Kaye Moran and Pritz, 1975; Gelb, 1979, 1980; Weinberg and Lager, 1980; Carlsson, 1981) have been written on the aetiology, symptomatology and treatment of the functional disturbances of the masticatory system but there is very little information on the specific relationship of cervical and M joint pain. The possibility that functional disturbance of the TM joint might be the cause of certain head and neck symptoms was recognized in the thirties (Costen, 1934) but it was not until the seventies that the high prevalence of symptoms and signs of the TM joint became known (Helkimo, 1979). A study by Alanen and Kirveskari (1982), showed that there was a highly significant overlap between diagnoses of head and neck symptoms by physicians, and TM joint dysfunction by dentists. They showed that TM joint dysfunction is associated not only with headaches but also with many other symptoms in the head and neck area. They suggest that TM joint dysfunction should be suspected when routine medical examination yields no pathological findings, explaining the symptoms in the head and neck area