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The methods for the examination, diagnosis and treatment of craniomandibular disorders are varied among medical institutions. It is intensely hoped that the standardized methods will be established as soon as possible.Therefore, a patients database and an expert system for diagnosis have been constructed and continued in cooperation with 13 universities. The universities participating in this project were connected through a computer network.The expert system was developed by using a commercially available construction tool “EXSYS”. The rules of the system were originally obtained from a dentist specializing in craniomandibular disorders.The purpose of this study was to apply this expert system to patient cases, and to discuss some problems of the system. The result was that the rates of diagnosis agreement between the expert system and 11 doctors were 60.1% in the 28 patient cases.

The object of this study is to do statistical analysis of 283 TMJ patients data which were collected from eight universities in Japan.The results were as follows.1. The patients were 59 males and 224 females. The mean age was 37.4 years.2. Pain on palpation was present in 88.3% of patients and the TMJ itself showed the highest incidence (54.4%).3. Joint noises were present in 66.5% and clicking was present in 51.8%.4. Fifty-four percent of patients had maximum opening of less than 40mm and 18.9% of patients had maximum lateral deviation of more than 4mm in opening and closing.5. It was recognized that the incidence of each symptoms which had been reported by many researchers in the past was different in some degree, and some factors caused these variations may be perhaps existed in our study.