Prevalence of Temporomandibular Disorders’ Signs and Symptoms and Chewing Ability in Patients with Prosthodontic Prostheses

Abstract - This study aimed to determine the prevalence of temporomandibular disorders among patients wearing dental prostheses including complete and fixed partial dentures and to evaluate the chewing ability of those patients. Questionnaire and clinical examinations were used to assess those objectives. Fifty six percent of all examined subjects exhibited at least one sign or symptom of temporomandibular disorders while 8.0% had moderate symptoms and 10% had severe symptoms. Patients with fixed partial dentures had a significantly higher prevalence of temporomandibular disorders signs than both complete dentures and dentate. The fixed partial denture group and dentate group exhibited significantly higher chewing ability than did the complete denture group. Therefore, the type of prosthesis correlated significantly with chewing ability.

KEYWORDS: Prostheses, Complete dentures, Denture quality, Temporomandibular disorders, Chewing ability.