PROVOCATIONTEST it is designed to elicit the described pain. Since pain is often aggravated by jaw use, a positive response adds support for diagnosing TMD. THE STATIC PAIN TEST involves having the mandible slightly open and remainig in one position while the patient resists the slowly Increasing manual force applied by the examiner in a lateral, upward, and downward direction. If the mandible remains in static position, muscles will be subjected to activation However ability of this test to discriminate between muscle and joint pain is not known