ABSTRACT
An epidemiological investigation was carried out at Yongin, Kyungkido, South Korea to determine the prevalence of symptoms of temporomandibular disorders and parafunctional habits in adolescent aged 16, 17 and 18 years. 2,098 students(male 507, female 1,591) were randomly selected and investigated with the questionnaire. The results were obtained as follows. 1. The prevalence of symptoms of temporomandibular disorders was 80.9% total, 77.3% for male and 82.0% for female with significance between male and female(P<0.05). 2. The prevalence of symptoms of temporomandibular disorders was gradually increased according to increasing age with significant difference among ages(P<0.01) 3. The most frequent symptom in the temporomandibular disorders is pain on chewing(65.9), and then clicking(50.7%), pain on mouth opening(41.8%), and pain on TMJ(36.8%). 4. There was little corelationship between clenching habits and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders(r=0.166), and also between bruxing habit and those(r=0.057).