Study of Pain in Young Adults With Temporomandibular Disorder

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate pain, mandibular movement and electromyographic signal in individuals with temporomandibular disorder (TMD).
Methods: Individuals aged 14 to 23 years were evaluated. The RDC-TMD were performed for the diagnosis of TMD and pain was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS). The participants were submitted to an electromyographic analysis of the mastigatory muscles bilaterally. The variables were treated using the Student´s t- test to analyze the difference between the VAS responses in individuals with and without TMD, and the Pearson´s correlation coefficients was used to evaluate the correlation among the variables.
Results: A total of 29 individuals were evaluated, 44,8% (n=13) without TMD and 55,2% (n=16) with TMD. The mean VAS for the right and left temporal muscles were the highest, 3.938 and 4.125, according to participants with TMD. It was possible to observe a statistically significant correlation (r = -535, p = 0.03) between maximum mouth opening and pain on the right masseter muscle. On lateral movements it was observed statistically significant correlation between right and left lateral excursion and pain on temporal muscles (p = 0.04). The assessment of muscle activity through electromyography during mastication showed a statistically significant correlation between increased muscle activity in the right (r = 0.652, p = 0.006) and left temporal muscles (r = 0.6591, p = 0.003) and right masseter (r = 0.540, p = 0.031) and pain in the right masseter muscle. In isotonic condition the correlation was observed between pain on left (r = 0.526, p = 0.036) and right (r = 0.501, p = 0.048) masseter muscles and greater activity in the left temporal muscle in TMD patients.
Conclusions: The greater the pain reported by patients with TMD, smaller mandibular movements and increased muscle activity are presented.