Epidemiological methodology is examined relative to the following: a) use of proper controls; b) the large magnitude of variation in published epidemiological studies on occurrence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD); c) its suitability for the study of TMD as stress disorders; d) the fact that TMD are a group of diseases each with different etiologies and symptomologies (epidemiological studies directed at the whole group may be misleading and inappropriate); and e) subjectivity of the criteria used in epidemiologic studies of TMD. This article involves the logic of the methodology and does not deal with statistical analysis.

Epidemiologic Methods↗

PubMed1994

Scientific Methodology in temporomandibular disorders. Part II: ethology.

The historical background of ethology and the paradigm of clinical treatment as scientific experiment, rather than practice of the art of dentistry are discussed. Ethology is defined and explained relative to the study of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) using instrumentation, measurement and retrospective clinical studies of successfully treated cases as meaningful research for improvement of future treatment.

Ethology↗

PubMed1994

Scientific methodology in temporomandibular disorders. Part III: Diagnostic reasoning.

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD), as a cluster of individual diseases and disorders, pose new intellectual challenges to the diagnostic skills of dentists. New technologies enable dentists to avail themselves of paraclinical data such that diagnosis can and should be disease specific or etiology specific. The importance of logic in diagnostic reasoning is discussed. Studies of the reasoning process of doctors with reputations for having good clinical judgement have resulted in protocols of diagnostic reasoning. Three specific strategies are presented and discussed-probabilistic, causal and deterministic. The difference between intellectual and managerial decisions are explained relative to utility of the strategies.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1994