Prevalence of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction in Various Dental Patients According to the Different Types of Dental Treatments

Abstract

BACKGROUND Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is mostly prone to various dysfunctions or abnormalities, even with a slight alteration in its normal function. Dental treatments in particular are known to cause stresses on this joint causing complications such as pain, tenderness, restricted movement, clicking sound etc. It can become severe with time and interfere in the daily living activities and affect the quality of life (QOL). Hence, this study was done to focus on a few common dental conditions to determine their effects on TMJ. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of TMJ dysfunction in dental patients with varying treatment durations. METHODS A total of 130 male and female dental patients who underwent /were undergoing various dental treatments were included, on the basis of age (18 - 45). The total number of samples were collected from 6 categories i.e., endodontic, orthodontic, cleaning / scaling, tooth extraction, filling, multiple treatments. FONSECA’S questionnaire was used as an outcome measure to determine the TMJ dysfunction. RESULTS Based on the assessment of all the 6 categories, major dysfunction was seen in the patients who underwent multiple treatments (86 %) followed by orthodontic (75 %), endodontic (73 %), tooth extraction (70 %), dental tooth filling (65 %) and the least was seen in patients of scaling / cleaning (61 %). CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of TMJ dysfunction has shown significant positive results in dental patients among which 71.5 % of them have shown mild to severe TMJ dysfunction and 29.5 % have shown negative results. KEY WORDS TMJ Dysfunction, FONSECA’s Questionnaire, Orthodontic, Endodontic, Cleaning, Scaling, Tooth Extraction