Association between Psychological Distress and Occlusion among Temporomandibular Disorder Patients - A Clinical Study

Background: TMD is a multifactorial disorder significant research efforts have been invested in finding its etiologies and management to improve their quality of life.Objectives: To evaluate and compare digital occlusal parameters, depression, anxiety and serum cortisol level between temporomandibular disorder patients and control group.Material and Methods: A sample size of 24 TMD patients and 24 apparently healthy age and sex matched controls were recruited in the study. The patients occlusion time and disclusion time was recorded using T-Scan III, the level of anxiety and depression was evaluated by using Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale questtionaire and serum cortisol was evaluated by collecting fasting blood sample, under aseptic conditions.Results: The incidence of premature contacts (occlusal interferences), clusion time and disclusion time was significantly longer in TMD group than in control subjects. The anxiety and depression scores were statistically significant in TMD group compared to control group, but no statistically significant difference was observed in serum cortisol levels.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated increase in the premature contacts i.e. occlusal interferences were high with increase in clusion time, disclusion time, anxiety and depression scores in TMD group, where as no significant increase in serum cortisol levels was seen among TMD group even though their anxiety and depression levels were high. Hence, patients with temporomandibular disorders should always be evaluated for stress and anxiety along with the T-Scan evaluation of occlusal prematurities and correction of the same.