Occupation as a predisposing factor for TMD, bruxism and cervical spine pain

Objectives: (a) compare the prevalence of Temporomandibular disorders (TMD), bruxism and cervical spine pain (CSP) among dentists, high-tech workers and a control group from other occupations and (b) investigate associations between CSP, myogenic-TMD (MFP) and bruxism.
Methods: Three groups of age matched women: 48 dentists (DN); 44 high-tech workers (HT) and 48 control (CO). Evaluation based on clinical examinations of TMD and CSP and self –reported questionnaires concerning pain and stress. Pearson chi-square and analysis of variance were used to analyze categorical differences.
Results: Stress was significantly higher in HT and DN than in CO. Significant differences among groups were found for MFP and cervical muscle pain. HT and DN were found to suffer from significantly greater MFP than CO (p<0.02). HT showed comparatively a significantly higher occurrence of cervical muscle pain (CMP) (p<0.001).
Subjects diagnosed with MFP (regardless of group) were found to suffer more frequently from self-reported cervical pain (p<0.05) and CMP (p<0.001) than subjects not diagnosed with MFP. A positive statistical association was also found between MFP and bruxism (sleep and awake) (p<0.005 and p<0.001 respectively). Furthermore, a significant association was found between CMP and MFP, regardless of group (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Working in HT and DN may present a risk factor for TMD and CSP muscular pain. Therefore, posture and ergonomic work is more important for these groups. The associations shown between TMD and CSP highlight the importance of cervical range of motion evaluation and neck muscles palpation as part of routine TMD examination.