Background:
Difficulties in examination of the masticatory muscles and temporomandibular joints by students of dental faculties were an inspiration to introduce and teach the protocol according to the standardized RDC/TMD questionnaire.

Aim:
To assess the effectiveness of teaching students of the fifth year of dentistry how to perform theclinical examination of the masticatory system in accordance with the RDC/ TMD questionnaire.

Material and methods:
Fifty-five students of dentistry took part in the study. The study protocol contained theoretical information on the RDC/TMD examination axis I clinical procedures presented during a lecture. During a seminar, the examination rules were demonstrated. Groups of four to six students were then presented with the practical manual procedure. These groups were examined using the RDC/TMD procedure by a teaching dentist and a student. The examination results were compared with the statistics calculated using the R program in turn by both the dentist and the student.

Results:
Forty-seven students were included in the analysis (34 female and 13 male). The examination results in qualitative variables were generally similar (from 85% to 100% repeatability), except for the identification of pain during maximum opening of the mouth and the identification of the midline shift, which had 78% and 74% concordance, respectively. The highest concordance (very good) was obtained when measuring the maximal mouth opening and interincisal distance (ICC = 0.937), while the poorest concordance was seen in the measurements of sounds produced during mandibular movements (ICC < 0.4).

Conclusions:
The training of fifth-year dental students using the RDC/TMD axis I questionnaire with the method described above proved to be effective.