Signs and Symptoms of Temporomandibular Joint Disorders Related to the Degree of Mouth Opening and Hearing Loss

Overview

Journal BMC Ear Nose Throat Disord

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Otorhinolaryngology

Date 2011 May 27

PMID 21612586

Citations 23

Authors

Panagiotis Kitsoulis

Aikaterini Marini

Kalliopi Iliou

Vasiliki Galani

Aristides Zimpis

Panagiotis Kanavaros

Georgios Paraskevas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The temporomandibular joint is a unique bi-condylar joint involved in mastication and speech. Temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) have a range of symptoms, including aural symptoms, and are present in approximately 75% of normal populations. The present study examined the relationship between signs and symptoms of TMD and mouth opening, gender, joint and aural symptoms, and hearing loss.

Methods: The study involved 464 healthy Greek university students (156 men and 308 women) with a mean age of 19.6 years. Age, gender and maximum mouth opening was recorded. Mouth opening was measured using Vernier calipers. An anamnestic questionnaire was used to stratify the subjects into four groups based on TMD severity. Aural symptoms and an audiogram were recorded for each subject too. Data were analyzed using multifactor ANOVA, chi-square, t-test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: The overall incidence of TMD signs and symptoms was 73.3%. The incidence and severity was greater in females than males (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05). The number of aural symptoms was associated to the TMD severity (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05) as well as maximum mouth opening (p-value 0.004 < 0.05). Audiometry showed that moderate and severe TMD was associated with hearing loss of median and low tones respectively (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05). TMJ pain (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05), TMJ ankylosis (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05), bruxism (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05) and ear itching (p-value 0.0001 < 0.05) were also found to be statistically different between TMD and non-TMD subjects.

Conclusions: TMD signs and symptoms were more common and severe in females than males. TMD severity is correlated with the degree of mouth opening and the number of aural symptoms. The absence or presence of mild TMD are associated with normal audiograms while moderate and severe TMD are related to hearing loss in median and low tones respectively. Bruxism, joint ankylosis, joint pain and ear itching were more common in TMD than non-TMD patients.

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Occurrence of Cervical Spine Pain and Its Intensity in Young People with Temporomandibular Disorders.

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Comparison of Pre- and Posttreatment Airway Volume in Patients with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders Treated with Ultra-Low Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography.

Verghese R, Jose R, Ramachandran A, Shanmugham A, Nair P, Kumar K Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2023; 27(4):e593-e601.

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Comparative Analysis of Mandibular and Cervical Mobility in Young Adults with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: A Case-Control Study.

Wolan-Nieroda A, Maciejczak A, Manko G, Juszczyk K, Rutkowski S, Guzik A Med Sci Monit. 2023; 29:e940653.

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