Partial edentulism and Temporomandibular joint disorders

The loss of teeth has serious functional, esthetic disabilities, in addition to compromising the patients' quality of life. Currently, in the private sector, the status of prosthetic rehabilitation is only limited to anterior teeth due to esthetic reasons and rarely the posteriors. This could be called as inefficiency or lack of knowledge on part of few dental practitioners to understand and explain the importance of functional occlusion to the masses. Occlusion and its relationship with the temporpmandibular joint has always been debated. However, there are studies that have tried to elucidate this quite often ignored aspect of rehabilitation. The purpose of this review is to illuminate the relationship between the teeth and temporomandibular joint harmonious relationship. The authors intend to create an awareness and encourage the dentists to conduct long term trials on this controversial yet an important aspect of prosthetic dentistry.