Relazioni tra disordini temporomandibolari ed occlusione: rapporti tra indice RDC/TMD, IOTN e struttura facciale in uno studio trasversale condotto su una popolazione scolastica

Aim: The term temporomandibular disorders (TMD) refers to signs and symptoms associated with pain and functional disturbances of the masticatory system. From an orthodontic perspective, the question whether or not the occurrence of malocclusion traits are related to signs and symptoms of TMD has attracted considerable interest. In our study we approach this subject assessing the IOTN and the RDC/TMD index among 14-15 years old school children in northern Sardinia, deliberately seeking if patients with great orthodontic treatment need are positively correlated to a higher incidence of temporomandibular disorders. Methods: We measured the prevalence of RDC index I and IOTN in 264 randomly selected school children from Sassari. Quantitative data normality was assessed by Shapiro-Wilks W-test. Correlations between TMD and data have been analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis equality-of-populations rank test for qualitative variables and univariate and multivariate logistic regression for quantitative variables. Results: 20% of the examined population presented an objective need of orthodontic treatment.RDC/TMD diagnosis prevalence was 16%. The most common TMD were disc displacements with a prevalence of the 13%. Significant correlations were found between RDC/TMD and mandibular teeth midline displacement (p less than 0.05) and between myofacial pain and overbite (p less than 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results observed in this study, certain malocclusion features represent risk factors for TMD.