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The purpose of this report was to investigate the actual need, as opposed to patient demand, for treatment of TMJ dysfunction syndrome in adolescents. For this investigation, 2198 Japanese schoolchildren, aged 10-18 yr (1095 boys and 1103 girls), were examined by questionnaire. In addition, each subject was given a clinical examination. The results of the subjective evaluations were compared with the frequency of actual occurrence of TMJ dysfunction syndrome. The results were: 1) Subjective recognition of TMJ dysfunction syndrome symptoms involved 253 students (11.5%): 129 boys (11.8%) and 124 girls (8.2%). with no significant difference in number between the sexes. 2) by comparing subjective assessment with clinical examination, the junior high school age was found to be the proper age for the introduction of preventive medical care, because these pupils were able to recognize the symptoms of TMJ dysfunction syndrome as accurately as adults. 3) the results obtained from the questionnaire and the clinical examination showed evidence of higher frequency of accurate recognition on the part of girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]