Dysfunction of the temporomandibular joints associated with post-traumatic stress disorders in patients

Abstract

Annotation. Temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJs) are among the most common maxillofacial pathologies found both in Ukraine and abroad, being comorbid in 75% of cases with other issues in dental patients. Psychoemotional disorders exacerbate the patient's perception of pathology and reduce the effectiveness of the treatment. Progressive exacerbation of TMJ symptoms associated with PTSD negatively affects patient-doctor relations and calls for the application of psychological and psychosomatic correction methods in addition to the standard multidisciplinary treatment and diagnostic algorithm. The purpose of the present research is to study and compare the nature and degree of psychological manifestations in patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction associated with PTSD by examining the degree of clinical manifestations of the pathology to improve the quality of dental care. Examination and treatment of patients with TMJ dysfunction were carried out at the Dental Medical Center of NMU named after O.O. Bogomolets. The representative contingent of patients included 234 individuals. We used the modified FPS-R scale (based on Bayers), the short scale of anxiety, depression, and PTSD according to Hart, the Giessen Questionnaire of Somatic Complaints, projective technique. The results of the study made it possible to note significant changes in the patients’ subjective perception of their feelings in each individual clinical group. In the II clinical group, which underwent the greatest changes, the percentage of feeling pain as too strong and unbearable increased by 3.9 and 4.2%, respectively, in the III clinical group, one was struck by the complete presence (100%) of pain complaints of various intensity, periodicity and the nature of the pain picture. Thus, general somatic and emotional-psychological components of the pathology became dominant along with the main changes in the neuromuscular and occlusive-articulatory components of the TMJ biosystem due to post-traumatic stress disorder.