The normal range of mouth opening in a group of Albanian population

It is indeed an axioma that we cannot diagnose and furthermore treat a disorder of a system if we aren’t able to understand anatomical and physiological interaction between all the component of this system. To evaluate the functionality of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), patterns of mandibular movements are the best and the simplest indicator that shows whether the correlation between anatomical integrity and functionality requirements are harmonious or not. Measuring the range of mandibular movements is a technique that allows us to assess and evaluate the functionality of the masticatory system. A variety of instruments have been developed and used to measure the range of mandibular movements, like as a millimeter rule, a millimeter caliper and more sophisticated one, electronic device such as mandibular kinesiograph (MKG) which electronically records mandibular incisor-point movements in three dimensions; measurement of vertical velocity is also provided by differentiating the vertical position signal (1). Different sources have shown that measurements reliability for evaluating the mandibular motion using a millimeter ruler is very good. The first assessment of masticatory muscle function is with no doubt the performance of the mouth opening movements that reflects the mandibular range of motion in sagittal and vertical plane. The normal range of mouth opening is estimated to be between 53–58 mm (2,3). A restricted mandibular motion is considered to be an Original Article