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Background: The main objective of this paper is to analyze the prevalence of each of the different clinical subtypes
of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in a sample of patients with this pathology. In addition, a second objective
was to analyze their distribution according to gender.
Material and Methods: To this end, the results of 1603 patients who went to the Unit of Temporomandibular Disorders
in the Córdoba Healthcare District because they suffered from this pathology were analyzed. In order to
diagnose them, the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) were applied,
analyzing the different Axis I subtypes (myopathy, discopathy and arthropathy) and obtaining the combined Axis
I for each patient and the relation of all these variables according to gender. The null-hypothesis test confirmed the
lack of connection between the gender variable and the different subtypes in the clinical analysis, and between the
former and the combined Axis I of the RDC/TMD.
Results: The prevalence was high for the muscle disorders subtype in general, showing an 88.7% prevalence, while
the presence of discopathies or arthropathies was much lower. Among discopathies, the most frequent ones were
disc displacements with reduction, with 39.7% and 42.8% for the left and right temporomandibular joints (TMJ),
respectively, while the prevalence of arthropathies was 26.3% for the right TMJ and 32.9% for the left TMJ. The
bivariate analysis on the connection with gender reveals a p≥ 0.05 value for the muscle and arthralgia subtypes.
Conclusions: The patients seen at the TMD Unit where mostly middle-aged women whose main clinical axis subtype
was the muscle disorder subtype. For their part, both discopathies and arthropathies, although present, are much less
prevalent.
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