Prevalence and Distribution of Temporomandibular Disorders in Teenagers

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and distribution for Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) in teenagers. Methods: through a crossectional design. A random sample of 1632 subjects was evaluated. The 49 % were woman, the average age was 16.7 sd 1.38 with a range between 13 and 25 years. TMD was evaluated with Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for TMD LeResche et al 1992. The clinical examinations were carried out by four standardized examiner (Intraexaminer and Interexaminer Unweighted kappa= 0.82, Weighted kappa= 0.89, respectively). Previously socio demographic variables that have been used were registrated: age and sex. Results: The prevalence of TMD was 39.2%, 3.2% belongs to the Muscular Diagnoses, 23.3% disc displacement, 7.1% to Arthralgia, arthritis, arthrosis and mixed 5.5 %. 70.2% from a group of 16 and 18 years old did not have TMD; also, 0.7% from a group of 22 to 25 years old did not have TMD. 72.8 % from groups of 16 and 18 years did present TMD and those who had less belong to groups of 22 to 25 years with a Chi2 = 12.08, p = 0,03. 31.2 % of men had no TMD and 19.8 % did have TMD; 29.6 % of women did not have it and 19.6% did have TMD. Chi2 = 2.7 and P = 0.04. Conclusion: The findings of this study make contributions suggesting the establishment of public health measures and treatments for those who were with TMD.