Systematic review reveals increasing osteoarthritis in both surgically and conservatively treated TMJ disc displacement, highlighting very low certainty regarding surgery's causal role.
Key Points
To assess evidence for osteoarthritis development following surgical treatment of temporomandibular joint disc displacement compared to conservative treatment.
Systematic review of studies evaluating osteoarthritis development in surgically treated temporomandibular joints versus conservative observation.
Identified eight observational studies encompassing 117 discectomies without replacement, 206 comparison joints under observation, and one disc repositioning surgery study; evidence quality assessed using GRADE.
Osteoarthritis and osteoarthritis-related findings increased during follow-up across all discectomy and comparison groups.
Included studies displayed marked heterogeneity in design and diagnostic criteria, with most exhibiting a high risk of bias.
Due to very low certainty evidence, the review could not establish whether temporomandibular discectomy directly causes osteoarthritis development.