Objectives: To examine whether patients who report orofacial pain (OP) and temporomandibular disorders (TMD) have a poorer perception of their oral health-related quality of life and, if so, to what extent, and to analyze the association between oral health perception, sociodemographic variables and reported pain duration. Study Design: 407 patients treated at the OP and TMD units in the Healthcare District of Cordoba, Spain, diagnosed following the standard criteria accepted by the scientific community – the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) – were administered the Spanish version of the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-14). Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the degree of association between the patients’ OHIP-14 score and pain duration, pain intensity, and various sociodemographic variables. Results: The observed distribution was 89.4% women and 10.6% men. The mean OHIP-14 score was 20.57 ± 10.73 (mean ± standard deviation). A significant association (p<0.05) was found for gender, age, marital status, chronic pain grade, self-perceived oral health status and pain duration. Conclusions: The analysis of self-perceived oral health status in patients with OP and TMD, as measured by the OHIP-14, showed that oral health is perceived more negatively by women. Moreover, a one-point increase in the Chronic Pain Grade indicator increases the OHIP-14 indicator by 4.6 points, while chronic pain, defined as pain suffered by patients for one year or more, increases the OHIP-14 indicator by 3.2 points. Key words:Orofacial pain, temporomandibular disorders, Oral Health Impact Profile, sociodemographic variables, primary care, Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD).

BackgroundTo analyze the association between the OHIP-14 and the different subtypes making up the clinical and psychological axis obtained using the RDC/TMD.Material and Methods407 patients treated at the TMD unit of the Andalusian Healthcare Service were administered the Spanish version of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders questionnaire (RDC/TMD), together with the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-14). The degree of association between the patients’ score in the OHIP-14 and the clinical and biopsychosocial variables was analyzed through bivariate and multivariate analyses, specifically through linear regression.Results89.4% of the treated patients were women, while 10.6% were men, with an average age of 42.08 ± 14.9 years. The mean score and standard deviation for the OHIP-14 was 20.57 ± 10.73. A significant association (p<0.05) was observed with the following variables: Axis I, jaw disability checklist, depression, somatization, perceived pain duration, and pain interference with activities of daily living.ConclusionsThe analysis of the relation between self-perceived health in patients with TMD, as measured by the OHIP-14, showed a R2 of 0.3979, with a higher Beta value for the association between the OHIP and patients with both myofascial pain and arthopathy, jaw disability, depression, a higher pain duration and a higher pain interference with activities of daily living. Key words:Temporomandibular disorders, psychological factors, oral health impact profile, public healthcare, research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders (RDC/TMD).

Objective: A study is made of the influence of gender, educational level, marital status, income, social support, and perceived general and oral health upon pain intensity in a sample of patients with temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD) explored in primary care (AP). Design: A review was made of 899 patients from Córdoba Healthcare District (Spain) referred to the primary care TMJD Unit by their primary care physician and/or dentist. Of these subjects, 151 failed to meet the inclusion criteria. The remaining 748 subjects were explored according to the corresponding research diagnostic criteria (RDC/TMJD). A bivariate analysis was made the association of pain intensity to the demographic and psychological characteristics of the patients, and to perceived general and oral health, followed by a multivariate linear regression analysis to explain pain intensity as a function of the rest of the variables. The SPSS version 19.0 statistical package was used. Results: The patient age ranged from 18-86 years, with a mean of 45.8 years (± 15.8), and a female predominance of 5:1. The characteristic pain intensity (CPI) score was almost 15 points higher on average in women than in men (p<0.05). A lower educational level, and separation or divorce, were correlated to an increased intensity of pain. Social support, depression and general and oral health also explained part of pain intensity. The regression model established with these variables accounted for 13.3% of the variability of pain (R2 = 0.133). Conclusions: Women suffer more intense pain than men. Perceived health partially explains the variability of the CPI score. However, it is empirically seen that the variables gender, educational level and marital status exert an important and independent influence upon pain intensity. Key words:Cranial-mandibular disorders, age, gender, educational level, primary care, research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular joint disorders (RDC/TMD).

Objective: A study was made of heart transplant patient perception of the influence of oral health upon quality of life, based on the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-49) questionnaire validated for Spanish speaking subjects. Design: A cross-sectional evaluation was made of the heart transplant patients followed-up on in the Heart Transplantation Unit of Reina Sofía University Hospital (Spain), using the OHIP-49 questionnaire. The included patients were all over age 18 and signed the corresponding informed consent to participation in the study. The data were entered in a database and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. Results: A total of 150 heart transplant patients (118 males and 32 females, with a mean age of 54.94 years; range 19-79) were studied. The subjects showed a poor perceived influence of oral health upon quality of life, with a mean score of 24.43 out of a possible total of 196 points. Women showed significantly improved perception of the influence of oral health upon quality of life versus men. Conclusions: The subjects in our study showed a poor perceived influence of oral health upon quality of life. Key words:Perception, oral health, quality of life, heart transplant.

BackgroundThe main objective of this paper is to analyze the prevalence of each of the different clinical subtypes of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in a sample of patients with this pathology. In addition, a second objective was to analyze their distribution according to gender.Material and MethodsTo this end, the results of 1603 patients who went to the Unit of Temporomandibular Disorders in the Córdoba Healthcare District because they suffered from this pathology were analyzed. In order to diagnose them, the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) were applied, analyzing the different Axis I subtypes (myopathy, discopathy and arthropathy) and obtaining the combined Axis I for each patient and the relation of all these variables according to gender. The null-hypothesis test confirmed the lack of connection between the gender variable and the different subtypes in the clinical analysis, and between the former and the combined Axis I of the RDC/TMD.ResultsThe prevalence was high for the muscle disorders subtype in general, showing an 88.7% prevalence, while the presence of discopathies or arthropathies was much lower. Among discopathies, the most frequent ones were disc displacements with reduction, with 39.7% and 42.8% for the left and right temporomandibular joints (TMJ), respectively, while the prevalence of arthropathies was 26.3% for the right TMJ and 32.9% for the left TMJ. The bivariate analysis on the connection with gender reveals a p≥ 0.05 value for the muscle and arthralgia subtypes.ConclusionsThe patients seen at the TMD Unit where mostly middle-aged women whose main clinical axis subtype was the muscle disorder subtype. For their part, both discopathies and arthropathies, although present, are much less prevalent. Key words:RDCTMD, axis I, orofacial pain, temporomandibular disorders, gender.

Pain, as a multidimensional phenomenon, must be tackled from different perspectives. The sociological perspective is one of the less frequent approaches in the bibliography. The main results of a pioneering study about the social legitimacy of pain are set forth in this paper, analyzing citizens' pain today, the feelings it causes in them, the type of pain they suffer, and how this type of pain has an influence on the perception of their own pain and that of others. A quantitative design was adopted, through a cross-sectional survey of general population living in Spain (n = 1600) conducted online in 2021. The results point out that a high percentage of citizens were in pain when they took the survey, even if they stated that they were in good health. In general, feeling pain means having a worse quality of life. Having pain of a psychological origin involves higher levels of shame or guilt, as well as the feeling of being judged by others, than the other types of pain. The pain caused by cancer is the one with the highest social support, followed by the grief caused by the death of a loved one, while the pain with the lowest support is the one caused by alcoholism or obesity. Feeling that one's pain is understood and legitimized by others is fundamental to being able to face it, that is why it is important to carry out studies analyzing pain from this perspective.