Relationship between psychological factors and symptoms of TMD in university undergraduate students

ABSTRACT

Temporomandibular disorders is a collective term used to describe a number of related disorders involving the temporomandibular joints, masticatory muscles and occlusion with common symptoms such as pain, restricted movement, muscle tenderness and intermittent joint sounds. The multifactorial TMD etiology is related to emotional tension, occlusal interferences, tooth loss, postural deviation, masticatory muscular dysfunction, internal and external changes in TMJ structure and the various associations of these factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the relationship between signs of psychological distress and temporomandibular disorder in university students. A total 150 volunteers participated in this study. They attended different courses in the field of human science at one public university and four private universities. TMD was assessed by the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) questionnaire. Anxiety was measured by means of a self-evaluative questionnaire, Spielberger's Trait-State anxiety inventory, to evaluate students' state and trait anxiety. The results of the two questionnaires were compared to determine the relationship between anxiety levels and severity degrees of chronic TMD pain by means of the chi-square test. The significance level was set at 5%. The statistical analysis showed that the TMD degree has a positive association with state-anxiety (p=0.008; p<0.05) and negative with trait-anxiety (p=0.619; p<0.05). Moreover, a high TMD rate was observed among the students (40%). This study concluded that there is a positive association between TMD and anxiety.

RESUMO

Disfuncao temporomandibular e o termo usado para descrever uma serie de disturbios envolvendo as articulacoes temporomandibulares, musculos da mastigacao e oclusao, com sintomas comuns como dor, restricao de movimento, sensibilidade muscular e ruido articular intermitente. A etiologia da DTM e multifatorial e esta relacionada a tensao emocional, interferencias oclusais, perda de dentes, desvio postural, disfuncao muscular mastigatoria, mudancas internas e externas na estrutura da ATM, e a diferentes associacoes entre esses fatores. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a relacao entre estresse psicologico e sinais de desordem temporomandibular em estudantes universitarios. Um total de 150 voluntarios participaram deste estudo sendo alunos de uma universidade publica e quatro universidades privadas de diferentes cursos da area de ciencias humanas. A avaliacao da DTM foi realizada por meio do questionario Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC). Para a avaliacao da ansiedade foi aplicado o questionario Ansiedade Traco-Estado de Spielberger. Os resultados dos niveis de ansiedade e dos graus de DTM dos dois questionarios foram comparados pelo teste do qui-quadrado, com nivel de significancia de 5%. A analise estatistica mostrou que o grau de DTM tem relacao positiva para a Ansiedade-Estado (p = 0,008, p <0,05) e negativa para a ansiedade-traco (p = 0,619, p <0,05), alem disso, foi observado alto indice de DTM entre os estudantes (40%). Por meio dos resultados obtidos e analisados neste estudo, concluiuse que havia uma associacao positiva entre DTM e ansiedade.