Clinical profile of undergraduate students with severe temporomandibular disorder: a case study

Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics of undergraduate students with severe TMD. Methods: Study case, descriptive, with a convenience sample of 30 students of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Maranhão, classified as severe temporomandibular disorder through the Fonseca’s Anamnesic Index; after the clinical examination (Axis I) of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorderswas used. Data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test and the Spearman correlation test considering a significance when p<0,05. Results: 60% of the students presented pain on both sides of the face, 50% presented uncorrected right lateral deviation, the average of incisal overbite was ±1,6mm, the average of midline deviation was ±1,4mm, 50% of the students presented click on the right side during mouth opening. Positive correlation and statistically significant (p<0,05) was observed for the presence of pain on palpation of the masticatory muscles and adjacent structures. Also strong positive correlation between the perception of difficulty to open the mouth and the mouth opening (r=0,76; p<0,001). Conclusion: The results of this study show that undergraduate students with severe TMD have significant limitation of the range of the mandibular motion, accompanied by pain in the masticatory muscles and adjacent structures.