Clinical examination of the T.M.J. interobserver reliability.

A clinical study was performed on 18 healthy persons, chosen at random and without major T.M.J. complaints, by 4 different examinators (2 physiotherapists and 2 oral and maxillo-facial surgeons). The main goal was to examinate the interobserver reliability of the different clinical examination methods commonly used in the department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial surgery and physiotherapy. The clinical examination consisted of bilateral palpation of the active movements of the T.M.J., evaluation of the passive movements and evaluation by specific manual distraction and compression tests. Statistical processing was performed with a Pearson correlation coefficient. The critical positive value for a good correlation was never reached. Although evaluation of 5 subjects with minor complaints, shows a low tendency of positive correlation. Therefore, interobserver reliability for the examination of the T.M.J. seems to be fictive in an at random sample. Examination of pathologic cases may be more concordant.