The Relationship between Dental Treatment and Temporomandibular Disorder

Abstract

The risk of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) can be increased during dental treatment due to excessive mouth opening and change of occlusion. The aim of this study is to find the relationship between dental treatment and TMD in the patients who developed TMD after dental treatment. The subjects of this study were 21 patients, who developed TMD after dental treatment and were treated with active TMD therapy in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from June 2003 to February 2007. The subjects were examined with preceding dental treatment, symptom, diagnosis, treatment method of TMD and prognosis of TMD. The obtained results were as follows. 1. Preceding dental treatments were : Implant treatment, 14 cases ; Tooth extraction, 3 cases and others. 2. TMD symptoms were : pain on TMJ, 12cases : Sound on TMJ, 3cases ; Mouth opening limitation, Headache and others. 3. Diagnoses of TMD were : Synovitis and/or capsulitis, 10 cases ; 8 cases of Internal derangement and others. 4. Most TMD were treated by stabilization splint. 5. Prognoses of TMD were : Improvement, 6cases ; sustained 11 cases. In conclusion, the risk of TMD is increased during implant treatment. Prognoses of TMD after dental treatment were bad. It might be that these patients were non-cooperative and have distrust of dental treatment. Because the overloading on TMJ is possible in dental treatment of patients with underlying TMD, prior explanation and knowledge TMJ treatment are very important in these cases.