Impact of temporomandibular disorders on oral health-related quality of life of institutionalized elderly people

Abstract

Objective: to assess the characteristics associated with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and their impact on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of institutionalized elderly people. Subjects and method: it was a cross-sectional study performed in 30 private institutions for the elderly. The data collected included the TMD questionnaire and clinical evaluation assessed by the Research Diagnostic Criteria/Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD), as well as the OHIP-49 questionnaire for OHRQoL. Results: twenty-four institutions accepted to participate in the study (n = 375 with 133 fit for answering both questionnaires). Considering the characteristics, tinnitus was the most frequent symptom reported, while 98.5% of the research participants did not present myofascial pain. Disc displacement was observed in 26.3%, while 93% of individuals did not present chronic pain. Severe depression was found in 23.3% of the elderly with 24.1% presenting moderate levels of non-specific physical symptoms, including pain. Poisson regression analysis showed that the characteristics reported were associated with a negative impact on OHRQoL. Conclusion: the domain-specific analysis showed that all domains were affected negatively by TMD characteristics and higher levels of depression are associated with a negative impact on OHRQoL.

Impact of temporomandibular disorders on oral health‐related quality of life: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…TMD is more common in older age because of physiological changes to oral motor function, changes to the TMJ, and pathological changes to the tooth and periodontal tissues that result in the loss of occlusal contacts 32–37 . Age group varied in the studies evaluated in our review.…”

“…TMD is more common in older age because of physiological changes to oral motor function, changes to the TMJ, and pathological changes to the tooth and periodontal tissues that result in the loss of occlusal contacts. [32][33][34][35][36][37] Age group varied in the studies evaluated in our review. Our chosen papers also mentioned gender differences such as in the study of Ossi Miettinen et al (15) Women are predominantly affected with TMDs.…”