Temporomandibular joint disorder is a chronic disease with high prevalence and difficult treatment in the oral and maxillofacial region, and its pathological mechanism is very complex. Clinically, it often directly manifests as a significant abnormality of mandibular motor function. Traditional diagnosis relies on clinical evaluation and imaging examination, which is subjective and difficult to dynamically quantify joint motor function. The analysis of mandibular movement trajectory can provide an objective and quantitative core evaluation method, which has undergone a technological evolution from mechanical tracing to digital and three-dimensional real-time tracking. This article systematically reviews the development of this technology, deeply discusses its practical application status in clinical diagnosis and efficacy evaluation of TMD, and objectively analyzes the problems faced by current research as well as future directions for breakthroughs.