Use of the Fonseca's questionnaire to assess the prevalence and severity of temporomandibular disorders in brazilian dental undergraduates

Abstract

This study to assessed the prevalence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) by means of the frequency distribution of data for 218 dentistry students from a Brazilian public university using the Fonseca's questionnaire. The group consisted of 96 men and 122 women, with an average age of 20 years. Of the students, 53.21% showed some level of TMD: 35.78% mild TMD 11.93% moderate and 5.5% severe. Women were the most affected group, with 63.11% showing some level of TMD, against 40.62% of men. When considering only severe TMD, women are approximately 9 times more affected than men. Students with any level of TMD showed marked characteristics: 76.72% considered themselves tense people; 71.55% reported to clench or grind their teeth; 65.52% reported clicking of the temporomandibular joint; 64.66% reported frequent headache and 61.21% neck pain. In conclusion, clinical signs and symptoms of TMD can occur in young population and this information is of great importance for the early diagnosis of the dysfunction.

Temporomandibular disorders and oral habits in high-school adolescents: a public health issue?

“…In this study, a total of 31.1% of subjects were in need for treatment. This result was higher than those reported by Nomura et al 2 and Oliveira et al 17 that found a lower percentage of individuals in need for treatment, with values of 18.24% and 17.43%, respectively.…”

“…For the symptoms described by patients, Nomura et al 2 found a higher prevalence of joint noise (65.52%), followed by headache (64.55%), than this study. However, their sample was young adults around 20 years old.…”

“…Regarding the degree of TMD, it was found that most of the subjects showed mild TMD (54.3%), while 24% had moderate TMD and 6.2% severe TMD, and only 15.5% showed no degree of TMD. A higher percentage of subjects with mild TMD, in relation to other TMD levels, was also observed by Nomura et al 2 and Oliveira et al 17 , who also used Fonsecas et al 15 questionnaire to assess the prevalence and degree of TMD.…”

“…Other autores 2,17 have already used in their research the questionnaire recommended by Fonseca et al 15 , known as DMF index, which according to Vasconcelos et al 18 allows you to sort the individual with TMD at an early stage.…”

“…Gavish et al 8 showed a lower prevalence of muscle tenderness in his study sample (23.4%), while for Winocur et al 13 these values ranged from 18% (men) to 43% (women). In relation to gender, literature presents countless researches which show the occurrence of female predominance [1][2][5][6][12][13]17 . This study also showed a statistically significant relationship (p = 0.032) between TMD and gender (women).…”