Loadings in temporomandibular joints (TMJs) are essential factors in dysfunction of TMJs, and are barely noticed in treatment of maxillofacial deformity. The only approach, which can access stresses in TMJs, could expend day’s even weeks to complete. The objective of the study was to compare the differences of the morphological and biomechanical characteristics of TMJs between asymptomatic subjects and patients with mandibular prognathism, and to preliminarily analyze the connection between the two kinds of characteristics. Morphological measurements and finite element analysis (FEA) corresponding to the central occlusion were carried out on the models of 13 mandibular prognathism patients and 10 asymptomatic subjects. The results indicated that the joint spaces of the patients were significantly lower than those of the asymptomatic subjects, while the stresses of patients were significantly greater than those of asymptomatic subjects, especially the stresses on discs. The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that weak or no correlations were found between the von Mises stresses and the joint spaces of asymptomatic subjects, while moderate, even high correlations were found in the patients. Thus, it was shown to be a feasible way to use morphological parameters to predict the internal loads of TMJs.

中文翻译：

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下颌前突对颞下颌关节形态和负荷的影响

颞下颌关节（TMJ）的负荷是TMJ功能障碍的重要因素，在颌面部畸形的治疗中几乎没有注意到。唯一可以解决TMJ压力的方法可能要花费一天甚至几周的时间才能完成。本研究的目的是比较无症状受试者和下颌妊娠患者的TMJ的形态和生物力学特征的差异，并初步分析这两种特征之间的联系。在13例下颌妊娠患者和10例无症状受试者的模型上进行了与中心闭塞相对应的形态学测量和有限元分析（FEA）。结果表明，患者的关节间隙明显低于无症状者，而患者的压力明显大于无症状患者，尤其是椎间盘的压力。Pearson相关分析的结果表明，冯·米塞斯应力与无症状受试者的关节间隙之间没有弱相关或没有相关性，而患者中度甚至是高相关性。因此，这表明使用形态学参数预测TMJ的内部载荷是一种可行的方法。