The partially edentulous patients (wearing RPD) exhibited more TMD signs when compared with the CD-wearing patients. Significantly, more partially edentulous patients had joint tenderness (P<0.04) than did CD-wearing patients. The masseter muscle most commonly demonstrated muscle tenderness.

Significantly more women displayed gingiva in smiling. Men had significantly wider and longer central incisors. No differences were recorded between men and women relative to both the horizontal and vertical anterior tooth overlap. Subjects who displayed gingiva when smiling had more horizontal and vertical overlap of anterior teeth.

Objective: To investigate the effect of age on the degree of maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth and associated gingival display when the lips are at rest and during smiling among a group of Jordanian population. Methods: A total of 127 subjects (74 females and 53 males) were included in this study. Subjects had all natural anterior teeth present with no caries, restorations, extreme occlusal wear, extrusion, obvious deformities, or tooth mobility. Crown length, displayed portions of maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth and associated gingiva at rest and during smiling were measured using a "Fowler Electronic Digital Calliper", which had a resolution of 0.01mm. The measurements were taken by two independent Dental Clinicians and they were repeated 3 times and the mean value was calculated for further analysis. SPSS (V 11) software was used to analyse the data. Statistical analyses were performed by Student's t-test and ANOVA. Level of significance was set to 0.05. Results: At rest and during smiling; maxillary tooth display decreased, and mandibular tooth display increased with increasing age, but the differences between age groups were not significant, with the exception of the display maxillary central incisor that reduced significantly as age increased (P<0.001). Gingival display during smiling followed a similar pattern and did not present any statistically significant differences between different age groups in the anterior region. However, maxillary gingival display was the highest below the age of 20; and above the age of 60 for the mandibular gingival display, but statistically significant differences were not recorded between age groups. Conclusion: Differences in tooth display in relation to aging should be considered when providing esthetic prosthodontic treatment that involves replacement of anterior teeth.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in adult Jordanian subjects with missing posterior teeth and the association of signs and symptoms of TMD with missing posterior teeth. Methods: A questionnaire and clinical examination were used to assess 93 subjects who accepted to participate in this study and were selected according to specific inclusion criteria. They were asked about TMD-related symptoms (pain or tenderness in the jaw joint and/or muscles of mastication, joint sounds, limitation of jaw movement, clenching or grinding habits) and examined clinically for missing teeth, and for TMD-related signs (tenderness in masticatory muscles and in temporomandibular joint, clicking or crepitus sounds, limitation of mandibular movement, attrition in the existed remaining teeth). The mean number of missing teeth were calculated, compared and correlated with TMD signs and symptoms in relation to age and genders. Data were analyzed using SPSS (v. 17) and statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: There were 37 (39.8%) men and 56 (60.2%) women; the mean age was 54.43±11.87 (ranged between 31 and 78) years. Eighty-five (91.4%) subjects had TMD-related signs or symptoms, 32.3% reported symptoms and 59.1% had signs, two-thirds were women. The mean number of missing teeth was 11.40±3.13, men significantly (p<0.05) had more missing teeth compared to women, however, significantly (p<0.01) more women reported TMD symptoms than men. Posterior teeth loss increased with increasing age. With age, TMD symptoms decreased and signs increased. Logistic regression analyses showed that teeth loss was significantly associated with TMD subjective symptoms; reported joint sounds (p<0.05), chewing difficulty (p<0.05) and with chewing side preference (p=0.001). Logistic regression analyses showed that teeth loss was significantly associated with TMD objective signs; clicking (p<0.01) and crepitus (p>0.001) TMJ sounds, unilateral TMJ tenderness (p=0.01), the pterygoid muscles tenderness (p<0.01) and teeth wear (p<0.05). Conclusion: Loss of posterior teeth is significantly associated with TMD signs and symptoms. In the group studied more women than men reported TMD symptoms and both male and female subjects were found to have TMD signs which were more common in men.

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