Signs of Temporomandibular Dysfunction Related to Edentulousness and Complete Dentures: An Anamnestic Study

ABSTRACT

Symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD) are prevalent among elderly individuals with complete dentures. In the agrarian areas of middle Finland it was, as recently as a few decades ago, almost a tradition to extract teeth during young adulthood. Women who today are in postmenopausal age are the last sizable age group in Finland where the problems of edentulousness can be investigated. The purposes of this study were twofold. First, postmenopausal women who are edentulous in the maxilla or totally edentulous were studied to determine if they differ from women with natural teeth in both jaws in terms of subjective TMD symptoms. Second, these subjective symptoms were examined to discover any correlation with duration of edentulousness age of the dentures, or difficulties in wearing them. The results suggest that for postmenopausal women, clicking noises in the temporomandibular join and tension in the neck are more common complaints among denture wearers than among those who still have natural teeth. Factors that make the wearing of complete dentures more difficult may also predispose the wearer to TMD symptoms. Duration of edentulousness is not, however, related to the prevalence of anamnestic TMD symptoms.

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Esa Klemetti

Dr. Esa Klemetti received his D.D.S. degree from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 1978. He served for several years as a teacher of dente students and researcher until 1993 when he received his Ph.D. from the University of Kuopio, Finland. Dr. Klemetti's special interest has been the function of the masticatory system and the effect of this function on craniomandibular disorders and bone density especially in geriatric patients. At the moment he is working as departmental dentist at the Department of Prosthetic Dentistry and Stomatognathic Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland