THE APPLICATION OF TWO FRACTAL DIMENSIONS TO TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT SOUNDS
两种分形维数在颞下颌关节音分析中的应用

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is one of the most co mp licated joints in human body. It performs complicated physiological fun ction. Temporomandibular joint sounds (the sounds produced by TMJ during mandible open-close) contain copious information concerned with states of TMJ. This paper analyzed the sound signal produced by TMJ of the normal and the temporomandibular joint internal de-rangement (TMD) pati ent using the theory of chaos and fractal in nonlinear dynamics. The values of the waveform dimension and correlation dimension were calcul ated individually. The results showed: the value of two fractal dimens ions of the TMJ sound signal of the normal is significantly higher t han that of the TMD patient. It is suggested that regarding the valu e of fractal dimensions of the TMJ sound signal as an index of dama ge and pathological diagnosis of TMJ is significance.