Prevalence of temporomandibular joint dysfunction and its signs among the partially edentulous patients in a village of North Gujarat.

UNLABELLED There is disagreement about the association between missing teeth and the presence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD). AIM To investigate whether, the span of edentulousness, gender, number of quadrants involved, pathological migration and the type of kennedy's classification are related to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction signs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical examination of 250 patients (males 99 and females 151) was done among the age group of 35 to 45 years. The patients were partially edentulous for 6 months or more and did not wear any kind of prosthesis. RESULTS Among 250 subjects, females showed more TMJ dysfunction signs. Clicking sounds were present in 46.5%, mandibular deviation was present in 40% of individuals, TMJ tenderness was observed in 32% and masseter was involved in 32% of individual. Temporomandibular joint dysfunction signs in relation to pathologic migration of teeth show that clicking and mandibular deviation was present in 54.5 and 49.2% and among muscles masseter muscle tenderness 41.9% was more commonly present. Masseter muscle tenderness 64.1% was seen in individuals who were edentulous for more than 5 years. CONCLUSION Females subjects had a significantly higher prevalence of TMJ dysfunction signs then male subjects. As the span and time of edentulousness, the number of missing teeth and the number of quadrant involved increased, the signs of dysfunction became more prevalent. Among the TMJ dysfunction signs deviation and clicking sound were most frequently observed. The masseter muscle was most commonly affected and demonstrated muscle tenderness.