Editorial Unimagdalena

Description in English: This text proposes an assessment of the craniomandibular system, related to the preparation of the medical history. It is a systematised and chronologically ordered protocol that includes anamnesis and physical examination. It is a useful tool for dental professionals and institutions providing oral health services, because it has been elaborated in a didactic way, supported by illustrations, photographs, tables, graphs and information organising schemes, which provide the best pedagogical strategies to consolidate the teaching-learning process. The authors describe how to complete the questioning and the extra- and intra-oral examination, with techniques, manoeuvres and how to quantify pain perceptions. They also designed instruments to record and organise the data revealed by the patients. The aim is to follow a logical and sequential order, to identify the state of normality, signs related to the symptoms expressed, aetiological factors that trigger alterations, limitation of the functions of the structures that make up the system and how their deterioration affects the mechanisms of the others, the relationship of the lesions with the systemic condition, the degree of severity of the disorders with the magnitude and regularity with which they are affected. The book allows the information obtained during the survey and the respective physical examinations to be compared. In the event of discrepancies in the information reported, the operator will have the possibility to carry out a verification check with the tools and strategies provided by this pedagogical material.