Relationship between temporomandibular joint dysfunction and psychological distress among students of Babol University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Iran

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction is a condition which affects the TMJ and muscles of mastication in the stomatognathic system and the associated structures. Several studies have indicated that approximately 60-70% of people suffer from at least one of the symptoms of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) in their life while only 5% need treatment. Some of evidence have suggested that myofascial pain, functional somatic syndromes are critical conditions of muscle pain which may be resulted from the psychosocial factors. The purpose of this epidemiological study was to evaluate the prevalence of relationship between TMDs, and psychological distress among university students at Babol University of Medical Sciences and Babol University of Technology, Iran. METHODS: This study conducted due to diversity in prevalence reports and to follow the standardized diagnostic method of research in this field. In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical (wrong term) research, 592 students at different universities in Babol were selected using stratified sampling method. Information about the signs and symptoms of TMD was collected by dental students and through completing the research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for TMD questionnaire. The data were analyzed using ? 2, t-test, and Student’s test. RESULTS: Between the subjects (28.9%) had at least one type of TMD and the difference between two sex groups was statistically significant. About 5.7% of subjects had moderate to severe symptoms of depression and the difference between two sex groups was statistically significant. In this study, the relationship between depression symptoms and non-specific physical symptoms (NPS) (either with or without pain) with TMD was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In this study, no significant relationship was observed between depression symptoms, as well as NPS (with or without pain) and TMD (P = 0.682).