Temporomandibular disorders and oral habits in high-school adolescents: a public health issue?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: Determine the prevalence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and its relationship with parafunctional habits in a sample of adolescents. Methods: The sample consisted of 129 high school students, between 16 and 19 years old in public schools. Data were collected through: a questionnaire about parafunctional habits and TMD symptoms, the Fonseca's index (DMF) and a summarized protocol of clinical evaluation of the TMD signals. These data were analyzed in a descriptive way, using statistical analysis by Chi-square test (x2) and Fisher's Exact test. Results: 84.5% of individuals showed a degree of auto-reported dysfunction. The most frequent parafunctional habit was chewing gum (65.9%) while the habit of biting objects was significantly associated with the presence of TMD symptoms (p = 0.042). There was a statistically significant association between TMD symptoms with variables such as gender (p = 0.032) habits (p = 0.014) and emotional stress (p <0.01), besides the association between the need of treatment and gender (p = 0.002) and stress (p <0.01). In addition, there was an association between muscle tenderness, unilateral mastication (p = 0.045) and chewing ice / lollipop (p = 0.04). Conclusion: It was concluded that there was not only a high incidence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction and parafunctional habits in high school students, but also an association among them, becoming necessary to establish public policies of prevention and access to treatment for these problems for that specific age group.