Displacement of the Inter-Articular Cartilage of the Lower Jaw, and It’s Treatment by Operation. The Lancet. 1887. Vol 8, pp. 411

Surgical correction of temporomandibular joint disorders is an important and challenging topic in oral and maxillofacial surgery. However, this particular area of our field continues to be controversial. The temporomandibular joint is a complicated anatomic structure of the musculoskeletal system that continues to be treated by many as if it does not exist. On the contrary, treatment approaches have been described through history for over a thousand years including the Hippocratic method of reducing a dislocated mandible [1]. Documented success in surgical management of TMJ disorders has been published in peer-reviewed journals since the 1800s. There is no shortage of TMJ patients seeking treatment, and most are successfully managed conservatively, without surgical intervention. However, patients that can benefit from a surgical procedure have much to gain from a long history of research and clinical validation. This is no different than the surgical management of other synovial lined joints in the body including the hip or the knee. In every aspect of surgery, there is an evolution of procedures which coincides with advances in medicine and biomedical engineering. And we as TMJ surgeons have had our failures, but we have also had significant successes. The first convincing description of successful TMJ surgery was documented in the literature in 1887 by a prominent Scottish surgeon, Dr. Thomas Annandale. His groundbreaking work was published in The Lancet.