Prevalence of severity and sex distribution of tempromandibular disorders and other related factors among a sample of Sulaimani University students

Abstract EN

Back ground : Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) have been recognized as a common or facial pain condition.

The term (TMDs) refers to a group of disorders characterized by pain in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the periauricular area, or the muscles of mastication, TMJ noises (sounds) during mandibular function and deviations, or restriction in mandibular range of motion.

The aim of this study was designed to evaluate the prevalence, severity and sex distribution of signs and symptoms of (TMDs) among the young adults.

And to evaluate their relation to oral parafunction habits, recurrent headache, history of past events and occlusion.

Patients and Methods: A total of 500 university students (250 females, 250 males), ages ranged between 18-26 years, were interviewed and examined for evaluating the symptoms and signs of TMDs.

Anamnestic dysfunction (Ai) of Helkimo (1974) was used to determine the severity of the subjective symptoms.

Clinical dysfunction (Di) of Helkimo (1974) was used to estimate the severity of the signs of TMDs.

Results : results showed that prevalence of one or more symptoms of TMDs was 27%, while the prevalence of one or more signs of the TMDs was 63.8% which was generally mild in severity.

Mild anamnestic symptoms (Ai0) were found in 18.8 %, severe symptoms (AiI) were found in 8.4 %, while mild clinical signs DiI, moderate clinical signs DiII and severe clinical signs (DiIII) were found in (47.4 %, 14 %, 2.4 %) respectively.

Conclusion : signs and symptoms of the TMDs were relatively high in the university students.

An etiology of the TMDs remains unclear but mostly appears to be multifactor ail.