Despite the interest in TMD among a few prominent orthodontic clinicians, before the late 1980s
orthodontists typically did not focus on TMD problems in their patients, except in instances of severe
clinical problems. Traditionally, scant mention was made of TMD treatment in the curricula of graduate
programs in orthodontics, and only cursory examinations of the TMJ region were conducted in routine
orthodontic clinical examinations. In addition, before the mid 1980s only a limited number of methodologically sound clinical studies regarding the relation between orthodontic treatment and the TMDs had been published, at least as judged by current standards of clinical research. The past decade, however, has seen an explosion of new information regarding orthodontics and TMD.