A Perspective Jaws Revisited: Costen's Syndrome

Abstract

Although James Costen was not the first to ascribe ear pain, tinnitus, impaired hearing, and even dizziness to temporomandibular joint dysfunction, he developed an integrated and systematic approach ascribing the symptoms to dental malocclusion. He wrote extensively on it, and a few years after his original article, the term Costen's syndrome came into general use. Recently, the use of the eponym has decreased, as dental malocclusion has assumed a lesser role in explaining many of the symptoms formerly ascribed to it.