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Association between oral habits and signs/symptoms of temporomandibular disorders in Flemish adolescent girls
Author(s) -
DE LAAT A.,
SOONTJENS N.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of oral rehabilitation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2842
pISSN - 0305-182X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2842.2002.01026_32.x
Subject(s) - medicine , palpation , dentistry , cheek , tongue , biting , temporomandibular joint , tenderness , orthodontics , physical therapy , surgery , ecology , pathology , biology
The influence of oral habits on the development of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and pain is unclear. The prevalence and nature of such oral habits may also vary geographically. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of parafunctions in Flemish adolescent girls and to study the interrelationship with TMD. A group of 261 school girls (15–16 years of age) participated. A questionnaire used in a similar study (Gavish et al ., 2000) was translated and inquired for oral habits (chewing of gum, nails or foreign objects, eating of seeds, crushing of ice or food, continuous leaning on the arm, daytime or night‐time grinding or clenching, jaw play, unilateral chewing) and TMD symptoms (joint noises, catching or locking, joint or muscle pain, tension or fatigue in the muscles). A brief clinical examination was performed by a single examiner: active and passive maximal mouth opening, presence of joint sounds, palpation tenderness of the lateral poles of the joints and of the masseter and anterior temporalis muscles, extent of abrasion of the canines, tongue or cheek imprints. Statistical evaluation used Spearman correlation, chi‐squared analysis and multiple regression analysis. The intra‐examiner reproducibility was moderate to high ( κ 0·6–0·8 – Spearman Correlation 0·99 for maximal mouth opening). The frequency of reported oral habits was high: leaning on the arm (98%), gum chewing (89%, mean duration 3 h day −1 ), lip‐ (62·1%) and cheek‐biting (41%), ice‐crushing (30%). There was a significant ( P < 0·0001) but weak (0·30) positive correlation between the number of oral habits and the number of symptoms. Internal derangements were significantly ( P < 0·0001) but weakly (0·25) correlated with jaw play and other oral habits. There was no relation between tooth clenching and myogenous pain (χ 2 , P =0·31, but only 27% power). Multiple regression analysis showed that the number of symptoms increased by 52% if the subject reported ‘jaw play’, by 24% if chewing gum more than 2 h day −1 , by 28% while cheek biting and by 25% if chewing unilaterally.