Temporomandibular Disorders Do Not Correlate with Detectable Alterations in Body Posture

Abstract

This study aimed to determine if temporomandibular disorders (TMD) correlate with alterations in body posture detectable through posturography. Thirty-five asymptomatic subjects and 35 TMD patients (34 males and 36 females; mean age, 27.7+/-8.6 years) constituted the matched control and TMD groups, respectively. Posturography was performed under four different experimental conditions: (a) eyes open with mandibular rest position (Eyes Open RP); (b) eyes open with dental occlusion (Eyes Open DO); (c) eyes closed with mandibular rest position (Eyes Closed RP); and (d) eyes closed with dental occlusion (Eyes Closed DO). The X, Y, and absolute centre of pressure displacements from the projection of a theoretical barycentre and the sway area, sway length, and sway velocity were recorded as static and dynamic posturographic parameters, respectively. Generally, no differences were found in any of these parameters between the groups and between the RP and DO within either Eyes Open/Closed conditions. The only differences were found under Eyes Closed as compared to Eyes Open, irrespective of the RP/DO conditions for dynamic and not for static posturographic parameters. This study failed to show detectable alterations in body posture in TMD patients.