Frequency and severity of risk factors for temporomandibular disorders in young adults

Abstract

Objective: To document the frequency and severity levels of risk factors for temporo-mandibular disorders (TMD) in young adults.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Prosthodontics Khyber College of Dentistry (KCD), Peshawar. A structured proforma and the method of interview and clinical examination was used to collect data from 100 young adults for the presence and severity level of TMD risk factors including socioeconomic and psychologica , dental and neuro-musculo-skeletal. Each of these broad categories of TMD risk factors were further elaborated into five sub-areas and their severity level ranked on a 5-point Likert scale with 0 (No Effect) to 4 (Extreme Worst Effect). The total score of each category was determined from the sum of the scores of severity level of the individual risk factors. The grand total was calculated by adding the total scores of all categories. Risk for TMD was determined as nil if the score = 0, low if range was 1-20, moderate when 21-40 and high when it was 41-60.

Results: subjects having moderate severity risk level for TMD were 52/100 with 18 (47.4%) males and34 (54.8%) Females. Maximum score was noted for the socio-economic and psychological factors (19/20) with a mean of 7.3±4.2.  Low score was noted for dental factors (8/20) with a mean of 1.8 ± 1.9. The scores for any of the two main Category factors came out higher for the socio-economic and neuro-musculo-skeletal categories risk factors and Lower for the dental and neuro-musculo-skeletal factors. The order of decreasing importance of the three main category TMD risk factors appeared as socio-economic and psychological > neuro-musculo-skeletal > dental (t-value =0.5, p-value = 0.000, df. = 99).

Conclusion: Addressing the psycho-socio-economic problems of young adults might help minimizing the risk for development of TMD.