Temporomandibular joint health status in war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD) in the Iran/Iraq war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 120 subjects in the age range of 27 to 55 years were included; it included case group (30 war veterans with PTSD) and three control groups (30 patients with PTSD who had not participated in the War, 30 healthy war veterans, and 30 healthy subjects who had not participated in the War). All subjects underwent a clinical TMJ examination that involved the clinical assessment of the TMJ signs and symptoms. RESULTS: The groups of veterans had high prevalence of TMJD signs and symptoms vs. other groups; history of Trauma to joint was significantly higher in subjects who had participated in the war compare with subjects who had not participated in the war (P = 0.0006). Furthermore, pain in palpation of masseter, temporal, pterygoideus, digastric, and sternocleidomastoid muscles in the groups of veterans was significantly greater than other groups (P < 0.0001). Clicking noise during mouth chewing was significantly different between groups (P = 0.01). And, there was significant difference in the frequencies of maximum opening of the mouth between groups (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that subjects’ war veterans with PTSD have significantly poorer TMJ functional status than the control subjects.