Prevalence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders and associated factors among Iranian dental student

Abstract

Introduction: Temporomandibular disorders include a number of clinical signs and symptoms that involve the muscles, temporomandibular joint, and teeth. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders in dental students of Golestan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 1400-1401. Method: In this study, 193 dental students were selected from the population under study by available sampling method. First, the necessary information was collected through interviews and completing the checklist. Male and female students were randomly selected and were subjected to a complete examination in terms of the health of the temporomandibular joint. After data entry in SPSS software version 19, the data was described with the help of frequency and percentage and chi-score test. A significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results: 193 students participated in this study, of which 98 were male and 95 were female. There were 30 first-year students, 30 second-year students, 39 third-year students, 32 fourth-year students, 26 fifth-year students, and 36 sixth-year students. The average age of the students was 24.5 years. Occlusion of class 1, class 2 and class 3 was seen in 156 people (80.8%), 29 people (15%) and 8 people (4.1%), respectively. A history of trauma to the jaw was reported in 14 people (7.3%). 17 people (8.8%) mentioned headache. Bruxism was observed in 13 people. The results of chi square test showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between related variables to TMJ disorder and gender. Conclusion: Considering the relatively high prevalence of temporomandibular joint disorder among dental students, further studies are recommended to investigate other related factors.