Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 506 subjects ages 14–25 years, assigned to either pain or non-pain groups. The subjects answered questionnaires concerning socio-demographic variables, history of stress, lifestyle, and anxiety. The Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) scale was administered by four examiners trained and standardized. Data were analyzed using binary logistic regression in STATA 8®, generating four multivariate models.
Results: The mean of age was 17.21±2.69, and 54.2% were women. 46.1% of subjects had TMD. Model 1a (n=365) included subjects that presented myofacial pain combined with other TMD (n=93); Model 2a (n=328) included subjects that presented only myofacial pain (n=55). Model 1b (n=437) included subjects that presented no pain combined with other TMD (n=177), and Model 2b (n=401) included subjects that presented only a non-pain diagnosis (n=140). Logistic regression analyses showed that variables associated with pain diagnosis were mainly psychosocial variables (stress and anxiety), whereas for the non-pain diagnosis group, variables were mainly clinical variables (bruxism, chewing site preference, and dental restorations).
Conclusions: We confirmed associations among variables reported in other studies, such as age, sex, bruxism, tooth loss, stress, dental restorations, and anxiety. The variables associated with pain and non-pain diagnoses appeared to belong to different domains.