Prevalence of self-reported pain-related temporomandibular disorders and association with psychological distress in a dental clinic setting

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of self-reported pain-related temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and its association with psychological status in a dental clinic setting. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, patients were asked to complete a TMD pain screener and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4). Correlations between symptoms of pain-related TMDs and PHQ-4 scores were analysed using Spearman’s correlation test. Symptoms of pain-related TMDs were compared between four groups of participants with different psychological profiles using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by multiple comparisons. The level of significance was adjusted using the Dunn–Bonferroni test. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported pain-related TMDs was 22.2%. TMD pain score was positively correlated with PHQ-4 score. The high anxiety and the comorbidity groups had significantly higher TMD pain scores than the controls. CONCLUSION: There was a high prevalence of self-reported pain-related TMDs, which was correlated with scores on all psychological assessment scales. Symptoms of pain-related TMDs were significantly greater in patients with high anxiety scores, regardless of depression level.