BACKGROUND
Temporo-mandibular disorder (TMD) is a collective term for conditions that involve pain and/or dysfunction of the TMJ and the related structures. Tooth loss is a major cause of developing TMD. The prevalence of signs and symptoms of TMD in completely edentulous patients has been reported to be as high as in dentulous patients.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of complete dentures on signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders with Craniomandibular Index in completely edentulous patients.
METHODS
A prospective interventional study will be conducted for two year. The subjects, who are non-denture wearer and completely edentulous for a post-extraction period of 6 months to 5 years without any complaint of TMD will be screened for signs and symptoms of TMD with the help of anamnestic component of the Helkimos Index. 110, such patients with mild to severe signs and symptoms of TMD will be involved in the study as study participants after informed consent. They will be grouped into Group A (subjects with mild symptoms, n=55) and Group B (subjects with severe symptoms, n=55). The craniomandibular index will be used to score the intensity of signs and symptoms of TMD in these subjects before starting the clinical steps in fabrication of complete denture and three months after the denture insertion.
RESULTS
Descriptive and analytical statistics will be done. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Version 20.1 will be used as statistical software. The statistical significance between the two groups before and after three months will be evaluated at P<.05.
CONCLUSIONS
We expect improvement or drop in the severity of the signs and symptoms of TMD in completely edentulous subjects after intervention with complete dentures. If this Hypothesis fails, then the prevalences of TMD in completely edentulous patients should be correlated with other factors such as anatomic or pathologic changes in TMJ and not with the loss of teeth or vertical dimensions.