Academic Stress contributes to Temporomandibular Joint Disorders (TMDs) among Dental Students of the Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, not the Social Stress: An Institutional Study

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of TMD in dental students in Universiti Teknologi MARA, and to identify risk factors that may contribute (social vs academic) to TMD in dental students. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 202 dental undergraduate students, aged 19 to 25 years from year 1 to year 5 were recruited in our study. The respondents have undergone an assessment using a Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) and Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaires. TMD was diagnosed by using RDC/TMD axis I and II. The DES questionnaire was based on five-point Likert scale, from a range of not pertinent to very stressful. Stress scores were measured from seven stressor domains. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher-exact test using SPSS 20.0. Significance level was set at P≤0.05. Result: 13.3% of the students were diagnosed with TMD, The higher prevalence of TMD was detected among female students. Present study demonstrated that academic stress is significantly higher than social stress among all dental students. Among the domains in the academic stress, performance pressure found to be the highest to effect the students. Conclusion: The significant association between TMD and academic stress observed in our present study warrants further investigation to examine the underlying molecular mechanism of academic stress in TMD initiation and progression.